Catalog 2017

It’s the soft, natural fabric associated with high quality and versatility. Used to make everything from jeans and t-shirts to tarpaulins, oil and cattle feed, it powers a 37 billion euros a year industry. But is cotton really as pure as it seems? Claims of forced labour, pollution, and even slavery have stained its wholesome reputation, creating a market for ’ethical, responsible’...

An 8 month long international investigation exposed the Paradise Papers. With 13.5 million documents, it’s the biggest leak in history. The majority come from one of the biggest names in the offshore world: the Bermuda-based Appleby law firm. Along with 400 journalists from around the world, we dissected the packages prepared for Appleby’s clients, who are either wealthy individuals...

VIDEO TEASER IN ENGLISH - Elise Lucet from France 2 and Laurent Richard from Premières Lignes are being sued by the country of Azerbaidjan for defamation in a French Court for describing the oil-rich state as a "dictatorship". This trial in France could set an important precedent for foreing governments exporting their censorship beyond their borders, to curb freedom of the press.   See...

When 15 – 30% of the timber sold worldwide is thought to be illegal, how sustainable is the wood used in Ikea’s products? The company claims it only uses responsibly-sourced materials but - as this investigation reveals - some of their sub-contractors are pillaging Romania’s ancient forests. In Indonesia, APP plantations have caused widespread pollution. This investigation, filmed in...

Secret internal documents reveal how Church officials protect priests accused of pedophilia by moving them from country to country, sometimes as far away as Africa. They call it ‘the geographical solution’. Even Pope Francis is implicated. When he was bishop of Buenos Aires, he tried to influence the Argentinean justice system in order to protect a convicted priest. From Cameroon to...

For the past 12 years, journalist Paul Moreira has travelled extensively in Iraq. In this personal film, he goes in search of the men he filmed back in 2003, at the very beginning of the American occupation. Through their stories, and by tracing the roots of ISIS to the arrival of Abu Mousab Al-Zarqawi and America’s handling of the resistance, he tells the story of how Iraq became such a...

How has the moderate and democratic Syrian revolution been taken over by Jihadists? Paul Moreira meets with a group of fighters from the Free Syrian Army, whom he previously filmed in 2011, to answer this question. This group of friends come from a region close to Edlib, and were rallied together by Jamal Maarouf, also featured in the documentary. They have all left the country. Now, they speak...

Benoit Bringer and Edouard Perrin (photo), Premieres Lignes investigative reporters, have been awarded the Pulitzer Price for their collaborative work on the Panama Papers investigation, along with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Columbia University announced on April 10, 2017 that the Panama Papers investigation has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory...