Maurício Ferro is a 32-year-old Brazilian journalist/entrepreneur focused on creating innovative solutions addressed to fix some of the biggest media issues, such as disinformation, news avoidance, and lack of trust. He's the CEO/founder of Correio Sabiá, the first-ever Brazilian media organization launched on WhatsApp to combat mis/disinformation by making journalism more viral than false narratives. In 2020, he was recognized in ICFJ's Emerging Media Leaders Professional Fellows Program for leading young journalists from across Latin America and the Caribbean. Maurício/Correio Sabiá were also selected for various national and international grants/awards, including ICFJ's Leap (2023), the News Innovation Lab, to develop an IA to combat disinformation; ICFJ's Fair Game 2.0 (2023), to develop a product/project against disinformation; ICFJ's Accelerating Digital Businesses (2023); Gabo’s Foundation “taller” for media leaders to “drive the transformation” across Latin America; Earth Journalism Network's Reporting on Marine Pollution (2023); and Google News Initiative's Startups Lab Brazil (2022).
Ferro was previously a Presidency reporter and worked for many prominent Brazilian newsrooms (O Globo, Estadão, Poder360, etc.). He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for participating in the FinCen Files investigation (2021), and a speaker at the 17th International Conference of Abraji (Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism), in 2022. He occasionally contributes to IJNet, and Correio Sabiá is associated with Ajor (Digital Journalism Association), which brings together more than 100 Brazilian independent media organizations.