A One-Woman Battle: Interview with Clare Rewcastle Brown

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You have to fight for what you believe in, says crusading investigative journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown. In 2010 Rewcastle Brown founded “The Sarawak Report” and “Radio free Sarawak.”

Through these channels the London-based journalist reports on what she says are corrupt practices in the timber, oil and palm oil industries of Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, and how few of the profits or resources go to the indigenous people living there.

I grew up in the jungle of Sarawak, and moved to London when I was eight years old,” she says. “I witnessed how these issues started while I was living there. That is a part of the reason why I care so much about bringing attention to these wrongdoings.

Rewcastle Brown is recognized as being one of the first people to speak up about the illegal deforestation and corruption happening in Sarawak. The New York Times called her “one of the most effective voices calling attention to deforestation in Malaysia.”

“While a few people and companies make a massive amount of money on the deforestation, the indigenous people of Sarawak can not longer live off of fish, animals or vegetation,” she says. “It makes me very angry.”

Check out this video interview with Clare Rewcastle Brown, shot during the Global Investigative Journalism Conference. She talks about her work and the attacks she’s been dealing over the years. 


The authors are journalism students at the University College of Volda who are on special assignment covering #gijc15.  

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