Gerard Ryle

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

"What we are trying to do is basically use the technology that is killing journalism to reinvent journalism."

Gerard Ryle led worldwide teams of journalists who worked on investigations such as Offshore Leaks, the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers and Implant Files, producing the biggest cross-border collaborations in journalism history.

Their award-winning stories helped bring about the downfall of three world leaders – the prime ministers of Pakistan, Iceland and Malta – and prompted government inquiries and legislative reform in more than 70 countries.

Career Timeline

1985: Ryle graduates from journalism school in Dublin, Ireland, and spends three years working on small, rural newspapers.

1988: He arrives in Australia on a working holiday visa and scores a one-week casual shift at The Age. He stays almost three years.

1991: Ryle joins the Adelaide Advertiser, after returning from another brief stint in Ireland, where he worked mainly as a freelance reporter for the Irish Press newspaper.

1992: He rejoins The Age and later teams up with colleague Gary Hughes on The Age’s investigative unit, Insight. Their reports on police corruption and questionable medical experiments on Melbourne orphans win Walkley Awards for three consecutive years.

1998: He moves to the Sydney Morning Herald as night chief of staff, going on to create the SMH’s investigative team.

2005: Ryle is awarded a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where accomplished journalists spend a year, developing ideas and skills to address challenges facing the industry.

2007: He is appointed News Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. He writes a book based on one of his investigations about a fraudulent fuel company, ‘Firepower: the most spectacular fraud in Australian history’.

2010: Ryle becomes deputy editor of The Canberra Times.

2011: The United States non-profit investigative organisation, the Center for Public Integrity, appoints Ryle as its first non-American director of its global project, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

2013: In the aftermath of the Offshore Leaks project, Ryle is named by Reporters Without Borders as one of ‘100 information heroes’ of worldwide significance. He is described as “the driving force behind a type of journalism that crosses borders and language barriers, and he embodies the future of investigative journalism worldwide”. He receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Liege, accepted on behalf of the ICIJ, also for the Offshore Leaks project.

2016: Following the publication of the Panama Papers project, Worth magazine ranks Ryle as one of the 100 most powerful people in global finance. He speaks at the inaugural TED Summit in Banff, Canada.

2017: Ryle announces the ICIJ is splitting from its parent organisation of 20 years and is to operate as an independent non-profit investigative reporting newsroom. The ICIJ wins a Pulitzer Prize for the Panama Papers project, which involved more than 350 reporters from 100 media organisations in 80 countries.

2018: Ryle is inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.

Awards

Ryle has won journalism awards both as an individual and in his capacity as ICIJ director, a role in which he oversees numerous collaborative journalism projects. He has won or shared more than 60 prizes from seven countries, including the Pulitzer Prize and five Walkley Awards. In addition, he has received honors from, among others, the Australian Press Council, Scripps Howard, Gannet, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Publishers in Asia, the Overseas Press Club of America, The American Society of News Editors, The Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Melbourne, New York and Washington, DC, press clubs, Online News Association, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and Harvard University.

Award Highlights

1996: Walkley Award, print (with Gary Hughes).
1997: Walkley Award, print (with Gary Hughes).
1998: Walkley Award, news report, print (with Gary Hughes).
2004: Walkley Award, Walkley, coverage of Indigenous affairs, all media (with Debra Jopson).
2013: Walkley Award for leadership, senior.
2014: George Polk Award, business.
2016: George Polk Award, financial reporting. Barlett & Steele Award, Investigative Business Journalism, Gold.
2017: Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting; Pulitzer Prize, finalist for International Reporting. George Polk Award, financial reporting
2018: Australian Press Council’s Press Freedom Medal.
2019: Barlett & Steele Award, Gold.

Book

Firepower: The most spectacular fraud in Australian history (Allen & Unwin, 2009).

Website: https://www.icij.org
Panama Papers: https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/
Paradise Papers: https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/
Implant Files: https://www.icij.org/investigations/implant-files/
Offshore Leaks Database: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org