James G. Wright

James G. Wright is a senior editor at OCCRP. Prior to joining, he was investigations editor at the Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. During the 2016-17 academic year he was a Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where he researched the influence of political mega-donors on American foreign policy. As deputy editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2015, Wright lead an investigation that exposed casino magnate Sheldon Adelson’s secret purchase of the paper and covert efforts to undermine the Nevada judiciary. Previously, he was a reporter and editor specializing in investigative reporting and coverage of government and politics at metropolitan newspapers in Denver, San Diego, Seattle and Albany, New York; as well as a media management consultant in Algiers, Algeria.

In 1985, Wright’s effort to protect a confidential source led to the Idaho Supreme Court ruling in Schilling v. Wright that established limited newsman’s privilege in that state.

Among other awards, he has received the Northwestern University James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism; the national Society of Professional Journalists Ethics in Journalism Award; the John B. Oakes Award for environmental writing; the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Champion of Justice Award and a regional Emmy award.