Clare Rewcastle Brown is an investigative journalist and founder of Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak. Founded in 2010, Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak uncovered major corruption within the Malaysian government, which was profiting off of the destructive deforestation of local land. Rewcastle Brown’s investigative efforts also unearthed the 1MBD scandal, in which $700 million was siphoned from the state development fund to the prime minister’s bank account. As her projects went public, Rewcastle Brown was blacklisted by the state and received multiple death threats. Her team faced an onslaught of both cyber and physical attacks, including the murder of an informant. In 2015, a Malaysian court issued an arrest warrant for Rewcastle Brown, which highlighted the government’s suppression of free speech. Her investigations were featured in Malaysia and in international outlets like the Wall Street Journal and The Sunday Times.
