00:00The threats began once I started working on this story.
00:03They had put five detective agencies to tail me everywhere, wherever I go.
00:16Being a journalist and investigating your environment is not only photographing polar bears,
00:19it is also confronting local, extremely dangerous, sometimes extremely corrupt authorities,
00:26companies that are opaque, that can legally, legally, even physically threaten journalists.
00:33And many journalists are threatened, imprisoned, killed,
00:37because they want to denounce an environmental scandal that concerns us all.
00:57Investigations on the mining industry are always very risky and very dangerous,
01:01because the mining industry is one of the most opaque sectors in the world.
01:06We quickly discovered that a journalist in India had been burned alive while investigating this sand traffic.
01:12A journalist in Guatemala had been prosecuted by the authorities
01:16because he had investigated the pollution of a lake by a nickel company.
01:22Other journalists in Tanzania had been forced into exile
01:25because they had investigated the gold business on a gold mine in northern Tanzania.
01:30The impact of this type of activity is enormous,
01:33and if it is not closely monitored, it is a disaster, not only for the local population,
01:37but also for us, because everything that happens at the other end of the world,
01:41as soon as it affects the environment, it is a subject that must concern us,
01:44and that concerns us in our daily lives, because these minerals, this sand ends up in France,
01:48this gold, we have it in our cell phones, and nickel is used in many consumer products.
01:55And so we decided, with Forbidden Stories and with about forty journalists
01:59based in about thirty countries, to continue this work,
02:03to go and investigate in these countries and publish this information at the end.
02:07It's 197 fine particles 2.5 and 161 fine particles 10.
02:17It's really bad here.
02:20Everyone may start to experience more serious health effects at these levels.
02:24We were able to establish evidence of the contamination also caused by these mines.
02:30We were able to investigate the trajectory to find out where these minerals went and where they were exported.
02:39We obtained evidence that the gold that was mined in Tanzania in this mine,
02:43where the sand had flowed, ended up in Silicon Valley,
02:47in all cell phone manufacturers.
02:49And this is important information, because we are in an era where we have companies
02:54who claim to be extremely green, extremely responsible.
02:59And often, when we investigate, we realize that the reality is very different.
03:02And when we ask for answers, for answers to these multinationals,
03:08from Silicon Valley, very often we have no answer, not even judicial threats.
03:12Mr. Vogel, I just have one question about your supply chain.
03:15Please, Mr. Vogel.
03:17Dude, you got to stop.
03:19Part of the gold we find at MMTCPAMP comes from a mine in Tanzania called Mosmah.
03:24Thousands of villagers have been allegedly killed or raped by people in charge of the security of the mine.
03:32Do these crimes correspond to the values of IBM?
03:35We are committing crimes in the values, it's obvious, of course.
03:37Okay, but this mine is part of your supply chain, it's one of your gold suppliers?
03:41We'll see.
03:42Today, we are at a time when we know that there is an environmental emergency,
03:45we know that we have to find solutions, we know that it must go through our policies,
03:49but also through our daily actions.
03:50But without information, we cannot make decisions.
03:53So we need this information.
03:54And sometimes, we need to continue the work of these reporters who have been prevented from their work.
04:01They wanted to reveal the information, they were prevented.
04:04So to us, Forbidden Stories, and dozens of journalists,
04:08we are trying to take over and to continue the work and to make sure that this information is brought to everyone's knowledge.
04:14This is what we want to convey with Forbidden Stories,
04:18it is to say, you have killed the messenger, you will never kill the message.
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