Brian Fitzpatrick

This unpleasant incident prompts me to recall an earlier episode when @CaolanReports took credit for other journalists' work. This July, he published a documentary about the Irish Aughinish Alumina plant, which supplies the Russian war machine. He claims in his promotional language that his video had a huge impact: "Within days, the investigation moved from social media into local, national and international coverage. Ministers were questioned. European officials became involved. A refinery that very few people had heard of suddenly became the centre of a major argument about Ireland, Russia, sanctions and the war in Ukraine." However, all of this had happened before he published his investigation. - The Irish PM had been questioned in March — four months earlier. - Same with Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot calling for EU action. - European Parliament VP Pina Picierno submitted a formal question to the Commission in May. How is this possible? Because the original investigation on this plant, exposing its deliveries to Russia, had been published my colleagues at @OCCRP, the @IrishTimes, and @guardian on March 24. Caolan's video piggybacks on that reporting, with hardly any credit (he says he "saw a report in the Irish Times"). We're always happy when people popularize our reporting and take it forward. I haven't watched his documentary, but it's 40 minutes long and I'm sure it has a lot of valuable original reporting. Caolan is prolific and clearly good at what he does — that's why he has a huge audience. It's good he's helping tell Ukraine's story to the world. But to behave like this, all while self-righteously accusing other journalists of breaching journalistic ethics, is galling.