IACC Young Journalists Program 2026 | Dominican Republic

There are stories that the world urgently needs to hear — and there are journalists bold enough, skilled enough, and driven enough to tell them. The stories of corruption, of public funds stolen from schools and hospitals, of institutions captured by private interests, of ordinary people denied justice because someone in power decided the rules did not apply to them — these are the stories that define whether democratic societies survive or drift into decay. And they need journalists who can report them with precision, courage, and international reach.

The IACC Young Journalists Program 2026 is looking for exactly those journalists.

Organized by Transparency International as part of the flagship International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) 2026, this fully funded program will bring 10 young journalists from around the world to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, from 1 to 4 December 2026, to report directly from one of the world's most important governance conferences. Every major expense is covered — flights, accommodation, meals, and visa costs. The only things you need to bring are your press credentials, your reporting instincts, and a story worth telling.

The deadline to apply is 15 July 2026. If you are an early-career journalist under 35 with a background in public interest reporting, this is the opportunity that could define the next chapter of your professional life.

About Transparency International and the IACC

To understand why this program matters, you need to understand the organization behind it and the conference it is built around.

Transparency International is the world's leading non-governmental organization dedicated to fighting corruption. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Transparency International operates in more than 100 countries through a global network of national chapters — local organizations embedded in their societies, working to expose corruption, advocate for systemic reform, and empower citizens to demand accountability from those who hold public power.

Transparency International is best known internationally for the Corruption Perceptions Index — an annual ranking of countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption that is arguably the most widely cited dataset on governance quality in the world. But its work goes far beyond publishing indices. TI supports investigative journalists, advocates for strong anti-corruption laws, monitors public procurement, and works with governments and international institutions to build the institutional frameworks that make honest governance possible.

The International Anti-Corruption Conference — known by its initials IACC — is Transparency International's flagship global event: a biennial gathering that brings together heads of state, government ministers, senior officials from international organizations, civil society leaders, investigative journalists, academics, and grassroots activists from around the world to take stock of the global fight against corruption and chart the course forward.

The IACC is not a technical conference attended only by specialists. It is a gathering with genuine political weight — a space where commitments are made, coalitions are built, and the global governance agenda on transparency and accountability is actively shaped. Heads of government attend. Landmark declarations are issued. Investigative journalism that changes national conversations gets amplified on an international platform.

Reporting from the IACC as a Young Journalist is not a ceremonial designation. It means being present at one of the most important annual gatherings in the world of governance reform — with a press badge, a notebook, access to the sessions, and the opportunity to interview some of the most important voices in the global anti-corruption movement.

Why Anti-Corruption Journalism Matters More Than Ever

Corruption is not an abstract governance challenge. It is a concrete, daily injustice experienced by billions of people around the world — in the form of a bribe demanded at a hospital entrance, a public contract awarded to a minister's relative, an election outcome manipulated by money, a court judgment purchased by the powerful, or a development project stripped of its resources before it can deliver its intended benefit to the communities it was meant to serve.

The consequences of corruption are devastating and pervasive. According to international estimates, corruption costs the global economy trillions of dollars each year — resources that could fund schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and social protection systems for the world's most vulnerable populations. Corruption undermines democratic institutions, erodes public trust, distorts markets, and creates the conditions for political instability and conflict. It is, in the most literal sense, a matter of life and death.

Journalism is one of the most powerful tools available for fighting corruption. When journalists expose corrupt practices — name the officials, document the transactions, trace the money — they create accountability that formal legal systems often fail to deliver. The most significant anti-corruption reforms in history have frequently been preceded and enabled by investigative journalism that brought hidden information into the public domain.

But anti-corruption journalism is also one of the most demanding and dangerous forms of professional practice. It requires specialized knowledge of financial systems, legal frameworks, and institutional processes. It requires the patience to follow complex investigative threads over months or years. It requires the courage to publish findings that powerful interests would prefer to remain hidden. And it requires the professional networks and international connections that allow journalists to share information, methodologies, and support across borders.

The IACC Young Journalists Program exists to invest in exactly that kind of journalism — by giving talented early-career reporters the international exposure, the professional network, and the direct access to global anti-corruption expertise that will make them better, bolder, and more impactful practitioners for the rest of their careers.

What is the International Anti-Corruption Conference 2026?

The IACC 2026 will take place from 1 to 4 December 2026 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic — a location that carries its own significance, situated in the Caribbean, a region where the fight against corruption intersects with the challenges of small island developing states, natural resource management, tourism dependency, and the complex legacies of colonial economic structures.

The IACC brings together a genuinely extraordinary cast of participants. Past editions have featured serving heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, leaders of major international organizations including the United Nations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, senior officials from major donor governments, leaders of the world's most respected civil society organizations, and the investigative journalists whose reporting has had the most significant impact on governance accountability worldwide.

The conference program typically spans a rich combination of plenary sessions with high-level speakers, thematic workshops exploring specific dimensions of the corruption problem, country-level dialogues where activists and officials engage on national reform agendas, skills-building sessions for practitioners, and networking events that allow participants to build the relationships that sustain collaborative anti-corruption work between conference cycles.

For a young journalist attending as a IACC Young Journalists Program participant, this program represents a four-day immersion in the full complexity of the global anti-corruption landscape — an education that would take years of conventional professional development to assemble through any other means.

The Dominican Republic and Punta Cana: A Setting Worth Appreciating

The host country and location of the IACC 2026 add a distinctive dimension to the program experience. The Dominican Republic is a nation with a complex and fascinating relationship to the themes of the conference itself. A Caribbean democracy with a vibrant civil society, a vocal independent press, and significant ongoing challenges around institutional integrity, the Dominican Republic is itself a living case study in the tensions and possibilities of governance reform in a middle-income developing country.

Punta Cana sits on the eastern tip of the island of Hispaniola — the Dominican Republic's most internationally recognized resort destination, known for its extraordinary beaches, turquoise Caribbean waters, and some of the finest natural scenery in the Americas. December is one of the finest months to visit: the Caribbean rainy season has ended, temperatures are warm and pleasant, and the region enters its most beautiful period of the year.

For young journalists arriving from other parts of the world — particularly from the Global South — the setting of the IACC in a Caribbean developing country rather than a European or North American capital is itself a meaningful statement about where the center of gravity of global anti-corruption work is shifting. The most intense and consequential corruption challenges of our era are being fought not in Paris or Washington but in the courts, newsrooms, and streets of countries across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Being in that environment, reporting from that context, building relationships with activists and officials from those regions — this is journalism education that no European or North American institution can easily replicate.

What the Program Expects of You: Responsibilities and Deliverables

The IACC Young Journalists Program is not a passive press badge or a tourism opportunity dressed up as professional development. It is a working journalism assignment — one that comes with real professional expectations and real deliverables.

Active Conference Participation is the foundation. Selected journalists are expected to attend conference sessions and workshops throughout the four-day program — not selectively, but comprehensively. Understanding the full arc of the conference, the connections between different thematic threads, and the ways in which different actors engage with the same issues is essential for producing journalism that captures the conference's significance rather than just reporting isolated moments.

Interviewing Global Leaders, Experts, and Activists is where the unique access that the IACC Young Journalists Program provides becomes most valuable. Having a press credential at the IACC puts you in the same spaces as some of the most important voices in global governance reform — and the program's official status gives young journalists a professional standing that opens doors. The quality of your reporting will be directly shaped by the depth and diversity of the interviews you conduct, and the IACC environment provides extraordinary opportunities for conversations that would be almost impossible to access through any other channel.

Producing at Least One Published Report is the core professional deliverable. Participants are expected to produce journalism — a written article, a broadcast piece, a multimedia story, or another format appropriate to their platform — directly related to the conference and its themes. This report must meet professional journalistic standards: accurate, well-sourced, clearly written, and meaningfully connected to the issues at stake.

Pitching Your Story to a Recognized Media Outlet is the forward-looking professional challenge. The program expects participants not just to produce reporting for their existing platforms but to identify a recognized media outlet — regional, national, or international — and pitch their IACC story for publication. This is an exercise in international journalism practice that develops real skills: understanding what makes a story internationally pitchable, crafting a compelling pitch, and navigating the professional relationships required to place journalism outside your home platform.

Following the Program Terms of Reference and Code of Conduct ensures that all participants maintain the professional and ethical standards expected of journalists working in the IACC environment. This includes standards of accuracy, fairness, source confidentiality where appropriate, and respectful engagement with conference participants and fellow journalists.

Punta Cana in December: A Conference Setting Unlike Any Other

Beyond the professional program, the experience of being in Punta Cana in December adds a personal dimension to the program that should not be underestimated. For journalists arriving from temperate climates entering their winter, the Caribbean warmth, the extraordinary natural beauty of the Dominican coast, and the rich cultural life of the region provide a backdrop that makes the four-day conference experience genuinely memorable in its totality.

The evenings after conference sessions in a Caribbean resort setting — conversations with fellow journalists and activists over dinner, informal exchanges in hotel lobbies and restaurant terraces, the particular camaraderie that forms when people working on difficult and important issues find themselves in a beautiful place together — are themselves part of the professional experience. Some of the most enduring professional relationships formed at international conferences like the IACC begin not in the conference halls but in those informal margins.

For a young journalist building an international network, every conversation counts — and the IACC environment in Punta Cana creates conditions for the kind of conversations that lead to long-term professional partnerships.

How to Apply

1. Visit the official IACC 2026 Young Journalists Program application page at iaccseries.org
2. Review the program details, eligibility requirements, and responsibilities carefully
3. Prepare your professional background information, published work samples, and motivation statement
4. Complete and submit the online application form before 15 July 2026