It is not a secret weapon or a military tactic. It is a law — bureaucratic, dull, and devastatingly effective. Russia’s 2012 foreign agent legislation gave autocrats everywhere a template for dismantling civil society while keeping their hands seemingly clean.

Democracy is not dying by sudden coup – it is being dismantled through the law itself, using a shared playbook refined across continents.

Democracy is not dying by sudden coup – it is being dismantled through the law itself, using a shared playbook refined across continents.

In this article series, we take a second look at current events in countries that often remain only briefly spotlighted in German reporting. Together with local experts, we ask: What political and social developments lie behind the current events that we see in the news? What does this mean for democracy and media freedom? With our exile expertise, we want to reveal global connections and understand what we can learn from this for free, democratic coexistence. In this episode, Azerbaijani journalist Fatima Karimova writes about the repression of media workers in her homeland and why the European Union repeatedly turns a blind eye to it.

Crooked deals with waste are just as lucrative to drug deals – only easier to conceal. An investigation by CORRECTIV.Europe shows how two companies from Germany and Czechia are making hundreds of thousands of tonnes of debris disappear just behind the border.

A Conversation with Ben Wizner, US Civil Rights Attorney

Short-term rentals through online platforms are surging – far outpacing traditional tourism. Using local-level data, CORRECTIV.Europe reveals for the first time where EU residents are confronted with especially high numbers of visitors.

How the Taliban use fake identities and bot accounts to simulate support – and exploit the digital space for their propaganda. An investigation into targeted manipulation, virtual control, and the threat to open societies.