COUNTERCHECKING GOVERNMENTS AND CORPORATIONS
A well-informed population is a powerful tool for change.
by Rafael Marques
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Journalists around the globe have provided the necessary counterchecks to governments and businesses but have become more at risk than ever before of being persecuted and silenced. But now is the time for even greater scrutiny. Corruption, public deceit, guised authoritarianism, and outright repression have long maintained political elites in power , crushing demands for reform and better governance. As activists and journalists we play a hugely important role in exposing this. A well-informed population is a powerful tool for change.
Journalists have become more at risk than ever before of being persecuted and silenced
Rafael Marques, Journalist and human rights defender.
OUR SPEAKER
Rafael Marques
Rafael Marques de Morais is an Angolan journalist and human rights defender focused on investigating government corruption and human rights abuses.
Mr. Marques was imprisoned for his work in 1999, for calling President Dos Santos a dictator in an article titled The Lipstick of Dictatorship, and released after international advocacy efforts on his behalf. His case was eventually taken up by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which delivered a precedent-setting ruling in 2005 according to which Angola had violated the journalist’s fundamental rights.
In 2000 he won the Percy Qoboza Award for Outstanding Courage from the National Association of Black Journalists (USA). In 2006, he received the Civil Courage Prize, from the Train Foundation (USA) for his human rights activities. In 2011, Human Rights Watch awarded him a Hellman/Hammett grant for his contribution to freedom of expression in Angola.
He has published various reports on human rights abuses in the diamond industry in Angola, including Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola (2011).
Mr. Marques holds an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford, and a BA Hons in Anthropology and Media from Goldsmiths, University of London. He was a visiting scholar at the African Studies Department of SAIS/ Johns Hopkins University (2012) and a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (2011), both in Washington, D.C. He is currently a board member of the Goree Institute, Senegal.
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Individuals contributed with their image and content in a personal capacity, not as a part of their role in any institution or company listed on this website.
Resources and points of view
The rise of strategic corruption, an article in the Foreign Affairs
Powerful people and those with access to them have always used kickbacks, pay-to-play schemes, and other corrupt practices to feather their nests and gain unfair advantages. And such corruption has always posed a threat to the rule of law and stood in the way of protecting basic civil and economic rights.
What is new, however, is the transformation of corruption into an instrument of national strategy.
Political and judicial checks on corruption: evidence from american state governments, article published at Harvard
Within a presidential system, effective separation of powers is achieved under a divided government, with the executive and legislative branches being controlled by different political parties. When government is unified, no effective separation exists even within a presidential system, but, we argue, can be partially restored by having an accountable judiciary.
