I am a freelance journalist and writer based in Berlin, focusing on feature writing and investigative journalism, mainly about Europe. As of late 2023, I am working on a series of articles on how corporations act very strategically to achieve political influence in the EU. And until mid-2024, as a recipient of a European Journalism Fellowship by the Free University Berlin, I will also be working on a project to research the decision-making processes that led to the current institutional and normative infrastructure in Europe. As well as writing, I have given talks and organised and run workshops and masterclasses –in English, Spanish and French– on collaborative and investigative journalism.
From March 2019 to June 2022, I worked with Arena for Journalism in Europe, a non-profit foundation promoting cross-border collaborative journalism, which also organises Dataharvest, the European Investigative Journalism Conference, a reference annual event for cross-border, data and investigative journalism in Europe. At Arena, I lead the development of the Arena Housing Project, an open collaborative network for journalists and researchers working on housing. As part of that work, I was the co-initiator and the coordinator of the cross-border project Cities for Rent: Investigating Corporate Landlords Across Europe, which in 2022 won the European Press Prize Innovation Award, received an honourable mention at the IJ4EU Impact Award and was nominated to the Sigma Awards for data journalism.
In the last years, I’ve also worked with AlgorithmWatch and Eticas Foundation, organisations that research the use of algorithmic systems that affect public life, and Tactical Tech, which investigates how digital technologies impact society and individual autonomy. And in 2017 and 2018 I worked on a journalistic project about citizen political activism, democracy and human rights in Europe thanks to an Open Society Fellowship.
Before moving to Berlin, I was successively based in London, Nairobi, Istanbul and Barcelona. I have reported from more than 20 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East; and my work has appeared in Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, El País, elDiario.es, New Statesman, The Independent, Internazionale, Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale, GlobalPost, Folha de Sao Paulo, El Universal, Agence France-Presse, Information and Expresso, among others.
In July 2012, my feature ‘A la horca con 14 años’ (‘To the Gallows at 14’), published by El País and about a child sentenced to death in South Sudan, won the Dario D’Angelo Award, given by the Marco Luchetta Foundation.
During 2015 I took a break from journalism and worked as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer for Doctors Without Borders in the South Kivu province of the DR Congo.
Email: contact @ josemcalatayud . net / Public PGP key
More information in my LinkedIn profile.
This webpage was last updated in November 2023.