03-07-2025
'Poison PR', an Investigative Collaboration Between The Wire and International Outlets Wins One World Media Award
The project examined how a US-government funded PR firm profiled activists and scientists opposing pesticides across the world, including India.
Illustation: Pariplab Chakraborty
The Award
As part of this investigation, The Wire published the story titled 'How a US-Based PR Firm Is Profiling Activists, Scientists Opposing Pesticides and GMO', on September 24 last year. The story highlighted how the US-based v-Fluence Interactive, a reputation management firm which received funding from the United States government, was working to combat opposition to pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops by secretly profiling critics, both across the world and in India.
The One World Media Awards, given every year across 13 categories including news, print, press freedom and refugee reporting, recognise exceptional and underreported journalism from the global south. In 2025, more than 50 judges from 20 countries chose the winners from more than 500 entries.
'Poison PR' won the 2025 Environment Reporting Award at the 37th One World Media Award ceremony on June 25. The list of media houses that collaborated on the 'Poison PR' investigation included Lighthouse Reports, The Wire, Africa Uncensored, The New Lede, The Guardian, The New Humanitarian, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Premium Times Nigeria.
The other nominees for the Environmental Reporting Award were the online text story ' Cattle Hustle ' by Mekong Eye, and a video story ' The 'black box' of the Mare Doricum ' by
Producer and reporter Cynthia Gichiri of Africa Uncensored who was also part of the Poison PR investigation with her video story on the profiling of African activists and scientists by the US-based reputation management firm was among the three nominated for the One World Media's 'Journalist of the Year' award.
'It is as important as ever to celebrate the journalists and filmmakers who risk so much to bring us nuanced and in-depth storytelling, especially against a backdrop of intensifying global conflict and shrinking media freedom,' One World Media director Vivienne Francis said in a press statement.
The Wire's Story
The investigation by Lighthouse Reports, in partnership with The Wire and other international news houses, uncovered that v-Fluence had created a private social network that hosted profiles of over 500 individuals globally, including prominent Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, ecologist Debal Deb and other individuals including scientists and academics.
Access to the network was invite-only and its members included agrochemical and biotechnology industry employees and allies from around the world, including India. This has raised concerns among some Indians profiled by v-Fluence about how their data might be used, highlighting potential risks to privacy. Scientists also told The Wire that 'critically profiling' activists and scientists is detrimental to scientific temper in a democracy like India, especially at a time when there is 'general hostility' towards civil service organisations.
Among the eight Indians who had access to the network was Raghavan Sampathkumar, the Executive Director of the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII). Sampathkumar, an agribusiness professional, has been working in the fields of GM crops, animal protein and agricultural trade while also engaging in policy advocacy and public relations outreach for agriculture enterprises. The FSII has ties to agro-industry companies and is involved in a project with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for deploying technologies to agro-ecological zones allotted for cotton production.
Another member was Anand Ranganathan, the consulting editor of the Indian right-wing magazine Swarajya. Ranganathan, who is a regular political commentator, has also worked with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) as staff research scientist. The ICGEB partners with the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Science and Technology, under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, for supporting biotech research and development. However, Ranganathan told Lighthouse Reports and The Wire that this was the first he was hearing of this network and that he has never been associated with it, or the people who run the network.
He also said that he had never used the network's services, and that although he was pro-GMO, he 'wholeheartedly condemned' such malpractices or 'any unethical and malicious practices or espionage against those who are anti-GMO'.
This is the second honour for The Wire at the 2025 One World Media Awards. A five-part multimedia series, ' Breaking the Nets: An Oral History of India's Fisherwomen, ' has been awarded in the Innovative Storytelling category. It was reported by Shamsheer Yousaf, Monica Jha and Sriram Vittalamurthy.
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