Laurent Richard, a French award-winning investigative journalist and 2017 Knight-Wallace fellow, is the founder and executive director of Freedom Voices Network.

He is co-founder of the highly reputed inquiry magazine Cash Investigation broadcast on French public television. Among others stories, Richard oversaw for Premières Lignes Television and France 2 the investigation on tax evasion in Luxembourg which afterwards became the international scandal LuxLeaks, thanks to documents obtained by reporter Edouard Perrin and given to 80 journalists worldwide via the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). As an investigative film maker Richard directed more than 20 long-form stories for television. Richard worked in many fields such as Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir.

Laurent has also investigated multiple corporate sectors such as big tobacco, pharmaceutical companies, and financial institutions. In addition to his duties as editor-in-chief, Richard keeps one foot in the field by leading, among others, investigations into dictators in the Caucasus region and Central Asia. My President Is On A Business Trip, a 120-minute documentary on the topic, was awarded the best investigative report at FIGRA Festival in France and was finalist for the Albert Londres Award which is considered as the equivalent of the Pulitzer award in France. Laurent

He is the co-author of the book Reporting Is Not a Crime. Stand Together Against Censorship (2016), a collective work of 15 journalists denouncing pressures against the press.

read more