Financial Transparency Coalition

The Department of Good News brought us a great story today. The Thomson Reuters Foundation – who, among other things, run the good governance, non-profit journalism outlet TrustLaw – has hired Stella Dawson to fill their new position of Special Corruption Correspondent. From the foundations’ press release:

Dawson has reported for more than 20 years on international economics, banking and monetary policy for Reuters from Chicago, Washington, New York, London and Frankfurt.  As Global Editor for Economics and Markets between 2007 and 2010, she played a leading role in shaping Reuters news coverage of the credit crisis and the Great Recession.

She was named Reuters Treasury Journalist of the Year in 2005 and has won UPI awards for feature reporting and breaking news. Her coverage of corruption in Virginia led to the criminal conviction of a county chief executive. She also is an experienced radio and television journalist, and appears on the BBC, NPR, CSPAN and CNBC. Stella is seconded from Reuters to the Foundation for two years.

Its great to see a talented journalist being added to an organization like TrustLaw. We need more experienced, smart people to hold officials accountable. The even better news is that Ms. Dawson was hired as part of a larger initiative to organize a “worldwide network of freelance journalists focused on bringing good governance themes to life.” We’ve seen a lot of these organizations pop up lately – notable 100Reporters, who lists Task Force member Global Financial Integrity as a partner – and deliver some excellent reporting. We’ll be keeping an eye on this new development.