Our Story
Built by newsrooms who wanted to stop working alone
Montrex began as a conversation between reporters in three countries who kept finding the same story from different angles.
Montrex started as an informal exchange of documents between two reporters covering the same timber routes from opposite sides of a border. What they found made more sense together than apart, and neither newsroom had the full picture alone.
Over time, that exchange grew into a working method: shared agreements on verification, a ledger for who supplied what, and a habit of publishing on the same day so no partner faced consequences the others hadn't planned for.
Today Montrex coordinates that same method for a wider set of partner newsrooms across West Africa, still built around the idea that credit should be as carefully reported as the story itself.
What We Hold To
Three things we don't compromise on
01
Named Contribution
If a partner did the work, the ledger says so — in plain terms, not a shared byline that hides who did what.
02
Editorial Independence
Partner newsrooms keep their own editorial judgment. Montrex coordinates the collaboration; it doesn't direct it.
03
Honest Translation
A translated version is never treated as equal to the source without a note explaining who prepared it and how.
The Team
The people coordinating the thread
Chidinma Okonkwo
Coordination Lead
Emeka Balogun
Methodology Editor
Aisha Bello
Partnerships & Translation