Quinto Elemento: Collaborating with Academia to for fool-proof investigations
Quinto Elemento Lab is an independent, non-profit media organization dedicated to fostering investigative journalism that empowers citizens and promotes transparency, accountability, and justice. In addition to training local journalists across Mexico, they work with a variety of external partners with whom they publish and republish three large collaborative investigations and more than 50 stories every year.
- Quinto Elemento Lab
- 2025
- Quinto Elemento Lab
- 2025
MAIN REVENUE MODEL
> The Story
A team from Quinto Elemento Lab and The Guardian investigated the link between a Monterrey-based plant, which recycled hazardous waste imported from the U.S., and the alarming levels of toxins in the area. The reporters engaged in extensive scientific and legal research, fact checking data and investigating Import/Export regulations facilitating the transfer of this waste to Mexico. A local academic took upon himself to collect samples from key community sites surrounding the plant to conduct a study evaluating the levels of toxins in the area and relay the facts to the community while the team of reporters captured their reaction to his findings.
Impact Summary:
External and Internal Network Impact
The collaboration with Toxicologist Martín Soto Jiménez from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) provided essential evidence on the level of toxicity the plant was emitting. Activists and environmental groups echoed these findings through their social media channels; local lawmakers demanded a full investigation of the plant and its surroundings and community members organized to collect signatures, pushing federal authorities to take action, preparing a class action lawsuit, and mobilizing the community to collect blood tests for children in the area.
External Individual Impact
In addition to the co-publishing partners El Norte and Reforma, two of the biggest newspapers in the country, who ensured the story reached the local audiences directly affected by the toxins, the investigation was further amplified through more than 60 regional and national outlets.
External Institutional impact
Within three days of publishing, local authorities shut down the plant pending an investigation with federal agencies requested by the municipality. The state government of Nuevo León requested the academic study conducted by the toxicology expert to support their own research efforts.
Internal Individual Impact
Reporters, including RFW corps member Andrés de la Peña who contributed to the fact-checking unit working on this story, acquired a diverse set of skills in fact-checking, accessing, analyzing and understanding importing and exporting databases in relation to the presence of polluting industries.
Takeaway
A lesson in the power of local-global collaborations and how journalists can team up with other experts from academia to produce a solid story with patience and thorough verification.
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