Nassim Khadem, Bastian Obermayer and Neil Chenoweth at the Wheeler Centre

The Panama Papers, which made headlines across the world in 2016, represent the biggest data leak in the history of journalism. 

The 11.5 million documents, leaked from a Panamanian law firm by an anonymous source, revealed secret information about shell companies and offshore tax havens and the details of the individuals who exploit them – including many heads of state and international celebrities. The scale of the investigation was monumental, involving 370 journalists from 76 countries and sparking protests, police raids and government inquiries across the world.

Bastian Obermayer was the man who received the first batch of documents that sparked this unprecedented investigation. He's a reporter at Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich, started the worldwide Panama Papers investigation with his colleague Frederik Obermaier and coordinated the team with the ICIJ.

For this conversation, he’s joined by Sydney journalist Neil Chenoweth, who has published outstanding work on the Australian Panama documents for the Australian Financial Review. The pair talk secret sources and stashpiles of the rich and famous with host Nassim Khadem.

Presented in partnership with the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne.

Erik Jensen

Journalism is at its second crossroads in two decades: not one of means, but of privilege. The loss of major revenues has made the press fragile, both economically and also in terms of self-reflection. At this year’s PEN Lecture, Schwartz Media editor-in-chief Erik Jensen will make the case for a serious reckoning across the profession; a re-evaluation of standards of ethics and objectivity.

‘I am asking for us to consider the impact of what we report and how we report it. I am saying the ethical bar we are clearing is not set high enough. Our code of ethics needs to be rewritten, and not by people who look like me.’

In 2019's PEN Lecture, Jensen asks how the media can change itself to keep up with a society that has already changed. Then, he joins Arnold Zable in conversation.

Presented in partnership with PEN Melbourne and PEN Sydney.

Susan Orlean at the Athenaeum Theatre — Photo: Jon Tjhia

Susan Orlean writes, writes, writes. For readers of the New Yorker, she’s a must-read – a staff writer since 1992, now part of the furniture. She’s scattered a trail of bylines through Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, Boston Globe, Esquire, Vogue and more. The Spike Jonze film Adaptation was based on her bestselling book The Orchid Thief; Meryl Streep was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of the author.

At least part of Orlean’s charm lies in her genuinely omnivorous curiosity. ‘I’m perfectly happy knowing nothing about the subject,’ she explained in a Washington Post interview. ‘In fact, that’s usually much more appealing to me.’ Her features – and books – have covered umbrella inventors, orchid poachers, Twitter phenomenon @Horse_ebooks, backyard chickens. A ten-year-old boy. A German Shepherd that became a movie star. An obscure rock band called The Shaggs. Most recently, in The Library Book, she has written about the unsolved 1986 fire that engulfed the Los Angeles Public Library.

Over decades, she has taken readers into places their minds have never wandered – sometimes, to places right in front of them. For our Mayhem series, this giant of American non-fiction looks back on her legendary career, and its eclectic subjects, in conversation with Sarah Krasnostein.