Natalia Viana is the co-founder and executive director of Agência Pública, Brazil’s first nonprofit investigative journalism outlet. In this role, she leads long-term investigations and multimedia projects on human rights violations and abuses of power. She has reported from Paraguay, Colombia, Bolivia, Angola, India, Mexico, and Venezuela.
As a reporter and editor, Viana has received numerous journalism awards, including the Vladimir Herzog Human Rights Award, the Comunique-se Award, the Women’s Press Trophy Award, the Gabriel García Márquez Award, and the Ortega y Gasset Award. In 2019, her investigation into killings by the Brazilian Army was a finalist at the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN).
She is the author or co-author of five nonfiction books. Her latest, O Vazamento (The Leak), recounts the release of U.S. diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks in 2010. Her earlier book Dano Colateral (Collateral Damage) examines the growing role of the military in Brazilian politics.
Viana was the first president of the Brazilian Association of Digital Journalism (AJOR) and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2022. She is a member of the Ashoka network of social entrepreneurs and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and serves on the boards of the Gabo Foundation, CLIP (the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism), Conectas Direitos Humanos, and the Center for Media Integrity.
In 2025, she received the Maria Moors Cabot Award from Columbia University, which honors journalists who contribute to greater understanding across the Americas