Ian Urbina

Crimes like this don’t often happen on land. A 10-minute slow-motion slaughter captured by a cellphone camera shows a group of unarmed men at sea, flailing in the water, shot and killed one by one, after which the culprits pose for celebratory selfies. The only thing more shocking than the footage was the government inaction that followed.

Hoping to stop migrants arriving from Africa, the E.U. created a shadow immigration system that captures them before they reach its shores, and sends them to brutal Libyan detention centers run by militias. The story was published in more than 50 venues in 11 countries and led to outcry from the UN officials, human rights advocates and parliamentarians. While reporting the piece in Tripoli, Urbina was taken captive and violently abused by a militia.

Off the coast of Italy, cruise ships are being repurposed as holding pens for migrants rescued from the Mediterranean.

In the small coastal African country of Gambia, an exploding industry to produce a lucrative high-protein powder called fishmeal has led to big economic promises, and a steep environmental price. Nearly half of all fish pulled from the sea globally is not used for human consumption but instead is ground up, dried and fed as powder or pellets to livestock, most especially farmed fish. This piece explores the surprising way that fish farming - or aquaculture - which was meant to slow the amount… Show more

In the small coastal African country of Gambia, an exploding industry to produce a lucrative high-protein powder called fishmeal has led to big economic promises, and a steep environmental price. Nearly half of all fish pulled from the sea globally is not used for human consumption but instead is ground up, dried and fed as powder or pellets to livestock, most especially farmed fish. This piece explores the surprising way that fish farming - or aquaculture - which was meant to slow the amount of fish being pulled from the ocean has actually accelerated it. Show less

Among the investigations covered in The Outlaw Ocean book is that of the Murder at Sea story, which reveals a slow-motion slaughter of at least four men caught on camera. The grainy video began circulating in 2013 and the original investigation was published by The Outlaw Ocean in The New York Times in 2015. In late August, 2020, the man shouting on camera and suspected to have ordered these killings was arrested in Taiwan.

This piece revealed the largest fleet of illegal fishing ships ever discovered: more than 900 Chinese ships in North Korean waters in violation of U.N. sanctions that China had signed. These ships had played a role in desperate North Korean fishermen dying and washing ashore. The story won a Sigma Award and led to meetings at the UN and a sudden withdrawal of these ships.

Based on hundreds of thousands of pages of documents acquired via open-records requests and a whistle-blower, this investigation uncovered how the Obama and Trump administrations used solitary in ways that critics say are arbitrary, cruel, and in violation of federal rules.

This investigation exposed worker safety and financial problems with a 20-billion-dollar project to build a plant in Kemper Mississippi that was supposed to be able to affordably convert coal into natural gas. A huge recipient of tax subsidies, the project was a centerpiece of President Obama’s climate plan even though it was plagued by problems that managers tried to conceal. The published story contributed to a federal investigation and the ultimate dismantling of the plant.

Seven of the stories in this series about lawlessness at sea were featured on the front page of The New York Times. An eighth piece ran in the New York Times Magazine. The series led to multiple arrests of captains for slavery and murder. It led to litigation against seafood companies and spurred corporate and government policy reforms. It also resulted in Congressional and State Department testimony. The reporting was awarded a half dozen awards and was optioned for film by Leonardo DiCaprio… Show more

Seven of the stories in this series about lawlessness at sea were featured on the front page of The New York Times. An eighth piece ran in the New York Times Magazine. The series led to multiple arrests of captains for slavery and murder. It led to litigation against seafood companies and spurred corporate and government policy reforms. It also resulted in Congressional and State Department testimony. The reporting was awarded a half dozen awards and was optioned for film by Leonardo DiCaprio. Eventually it was the basis for a subsequent best-selling book and the founding of a journalism non-profit organization by the same name. Show less

We despise them – yet we imbue them with our hopes and dreams, our dearest memories, our deepest meanings. Turns out, passwords unlock much more than our accounts. A motivational mantra, a swipe at the boss, a hidden shrine to a lost love, an inside joke with ourselves, a defining emotional scar — many of our most prized passwords are also mental tchotchkes that carry our inner lives forward. Urbina spent 5 years convincing people to tell him their passwords and the rich stories hidden within… Show more

We despise them – yet we imbue them with our hopes and dreams, our dearest memories, our deepest meanings. Turns out, passwords unlock much more than our accounts. A motivational mantra, a swipe at the boss, a hidden shrine to a lost love, an inside joke with ourselves, a defining emotional scar — many of our most prized passwords are also mental tchotchkes that carry our inner lives forward. Urbina spent 5 years convincing people to tell him their passwords and the rich stories hidden within many of them. Show less

This story revealed that the largest employer of undocumented immigrants in America is the U.S. government. As the federal government cracked down on immigrants where were in the country illegally and penalized businesses that hired them, the federal prison system employs tens of thousands of those same undocumented immigrants each year.

Based on federal data, this piece showed that on any given day, about 300 immigrants are held in solitary confinement at Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers, a practice psychiatrists worry is overly punitive.

This 11-part series exposed the environmental, worker safety, and financial risks of fracking, a drilling technique driving the U.S. oil and gas boom. Among its many findings, the series revealed that, with little oversight, oil and gas companies were routinely sending highly radioactive drilling waste to sewage plants that were unequipped to treat it before it was discharged into rivers, sometimes less than a mile upstream from drinking-water intake plants. Municipal authorities were routinely… Show more

This 11-part series exposed the environmental, worker safety, and financial risks of fracking, a drilling technique driving the U.S. oil and gas boom. Among its many findings, the series revealed that, with little oversight, oil and gas companies were routinely sending highly radioactive drilling waste to sewage plants that were unequipped to treat it before it was discharged into rivers, sometimes less than a mile upstream from drinking-water intake plants. Municipal authorities were routinely using contaminated drilling waste to de-ice roads in winter and suppress dust in summer, sending millions of gallons of contaminated runoff into rivers. Senior E.P.A. officials bowed to political pressure and blocked research on some of the gas industry’s most hazardous practices. The focus of six Congressional hearings, the reporting also contributed to investigations of the fracking industry by the S.E.C., the New York Attorney General and the G.A.O.. The reporting won an award from The Society for Business Journalists, was the focus of an episode on Stephan Colbert’s show and became the basis for a Matt Damon and John Krasinski movie, Promised Land. Show less

This piece is a deep profile of Sam Childers, a former Hell's Angel and gun runner, turned born-again Christian preacher, who joined the guerrilla fighters in South Sudan. Urbina traveled with Childers, after he was ostensibly hired to kill a brutal warlord named Joseph Kony, leader of a group called the Lord's Resistance Army. In 2011, Childers' life story became the basis of a movie called Machine Gun Preacher, starring Gerard Butler.

This story investigated so-called “mag crews” – traveling groups of teenagers, many of them runaways or from broken homes, who sell magazine subscriptions. It revealed an otherwise hidden industry prone to debt bondage, drug use and violence. The piece was adapted into the 2016 movie, American Honey, directed by Andrea Arnold and starring Shia LaBeouf.

The piece revealed a proposed federal plan to use prisoners as test subjects for pharmaceutical drug trials, dredging up a painful history of medical mistreatment of inmates. After the story, the proposal was canceled.

Urbina was a member of the team of reporters that wrote a series about diabetes. Urbina’s story focused on the upside-nature of American health care and how insurance often pays to counter symptoms but not the causes of chronic diseases. The series, called Bad Blood, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and received a public service award from the Society of Professional Journalists’ New York City chapter and a Society of Silurians award for science health reporting.

This piece revealed that the U.S. Department of Defense uses federal prison inmates, including convicted terrorists, to work in factories producing everything from soldier uniforms and helmets to missile parts and parachutes.