Margareth Aritonang

Margareth Aritonang is an investigative journalist based in Indonesia. She has researched, reported and conducted investigations on environmental issues, human rights, politics and security affairs for over 15 years. She is currently the Indonesia Editor of the UK-based non-profit journalism initiative The Gecko Project, whose focus is on investigating the role of land use in some of the most pressing global challenges, including climate change, deforestation, food security and the rights of marginalized communities. As the Indonesia Editor, she is responsible for conducting research, leading investigations, and managing collaboration with Indonesian newsrooms, consultants, researchers, freelance journalists and civil society groups. Her responsibility also includes presenting investigation findings to the Indonesian government and policymakers. She has led investigations on how a politically-connected firm sought to profit from stripped-back regulations on a food estate project in Indonesia's Borneo and how decade-long deforestation contributed to malnutrition in children and pregnant women of the indigenous Marine community in Indonesia's easternmost Papua. Before joining Gecko, she worked with the Indonesian English newspaper The Jakarta Post for nearly ten years, during which she reported and conducted investigations on prolonged past human rights violations, the death penalty, sectarian conflicts, and Indonesia's national politics. She received a Chevening Scholarship from the British Government to pursue a Master's degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2018.

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