Hunterbrook Media—a multimillion-dollar news group affiliated with the American hedge fund Hunterbrook Capital—launched what was packaged as a new investigation on Monday detailing how Italian steel company Danieli Co., Ltd. has been providing support to Myanmar’s junta through its engagement in the industry.
In a press release promoting the piece, Hunterbrook Media’s publisher, Sam Koppelman, described his group’s “investigations” as “showcas[ing] Hunterbrook Media’s mission to bring accountability to under-scrutinized sectors and visibility to under-covered regions” and claimed that the group was “exposing how these companies may be providing a lifeline to Myanmar’s brutal military regime.”
It is highly disheartening that, in delivering this statement, Mr Koppelman was taking credit for the rigorous, original work of journalists at Myanmar Now reporting amid unprecedented challenges.
Hunterbrook Media’s 900-word report, titled “Italian Steel Plant Maker Danieli Facing OECD Complaint for Aiding the Junta’s Steel Industry,” was widely lifted from an investigative report published by Myanmar Now in June 2023 that exposed Danieli’s collaboration with the military in the steel industry; this raises questions about Hunterbrook Media’s legitimacy as an investigative news organisation, its motives, and its journalistic integrity.
Hunterbrook Media operates under a controversial business model described by the Australian Financial Review as “pair[ing] the sort of investigative journalism typically done by newsrooms with a long-short hedge fund.” The April 3 article, which stated that Hunterbrook Capital had already earned US$100 million in trade funds based on Hunterbrook Media’s reports, warned that the approach was “fraught with compliance risks” and “potential conflicts of interest.”
Myanmar Now has continued to follow the development of the story surrounding Danieli in Myanmar and Italy. This has included coverage of steel plant openings, a civil society report delivered to the Italian parliament last October calling for an investigation into Danieli, and the subsequent filing of an OECD complaint against the company in December.
It is unclear what, if any, original research was conducted by Hunterbrook Media for this recent publication, since nearly all its sources were initially documented and shared by Myanmar Now. This includes links to the same military media reports, junta ministry documents, obscure footage of the steel plant in question, and references to the work of the same advocacy groups. Yet Hunterbrook Media made no attribution to Myanmar Now until the second half of the report, demonstrating a familiarity with our work and findings but failing to indicate the extent to which they informed the piece Hunterbrook published.
There is certainly more to learn about both Danieli’s engagement in Myanmar and the junta’s steel industry, and Myanmar Now welcomes further investigatory work on these issues. However, we consider Hunterbrook Media’s recent piece to have fallen short of the standard for an original investigation.
If Hunterbrook Media uncovers new and related data that would contribute to the public’s understanding of these topics beyond existing reporting, we encourage its release. In the absence of such a development, we demand that Hunterbrook Media issue a public correction to its April 15 report, prominently indicating how Danieli’s Myanmar military ties—and the sourcing illustrating this relationship—were originally outlined and reported by Myanmar Now.
Myanmar Now is an award-winning news outlet that has been targeted by the junta for its important and in-depth coverage of the country since the February 2021 military coup. We ask that our critical work be given the respect and support it deserves.
