I am a freelance journalist and writer based in Berlin since January 2020, and earlier I was based in Barcelona, Istanbul and Nairobi. Currently, I’m focusing on feature writing and investigative journalism, mainly about Europe, and I am the co-initiator and the coordinator of the cross-border project Cities for Rent: Investigating Corporate Landlords Across Europe, which 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. My work has also appeared in Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, El País, elDiario.es, New Statesman, Internazionale, USA Today, Information and Expresso, among others.
From March 2019 to June 2022, I also worked with Arena for Journalism in Europe, a non-profit foundation promoting cross-border collaborative journalism, where I lead the Arena Housing Project, an open collaborative network for journalists and researchers working on housing. Arena also organises Dataharvest, the European Investigative Journalism Conference, a reference annual event for cross-border, data and investigative journalism in Europe.
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 all that, between 2012 and 2014, I was based in Istanbul and covered Turkey and the region for El País. Then I also contributed to media like GlobalPost, The Independent, Folha de Sao Paulo, El Universal and AFP.
Earlier, I had been based in East Africa since 2009. I first covered the region for Spanish news agency Efe, and from 2011 for El País. Back then, I also contributed to IRIN, Jane’s and, in Spanish, Periodismo Humano, Foreign Policy en español (now esglobal) and Radio France Internationale, among others.
In July 2012, my feature ‘A la horca con 14 años’ (‘To the Gallows at 14’), about a child sentenced to death in South Sudan, won the Dario D’Angelo Award, given by the Marco Luchetta Foundation.
I have reported from more than 20 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
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
Fingerprint: FAFD 724C C7D4 A630 E0BD 7D3A 347C E250 DF06 8863
More information in my LinkedIn profile.