A young award-winning journalist, Ian Yee is known for spearheading the Peabody-nominated impact and investigative journalism team R.AGE at The Star newspaper that’s acclaimed for its documentaries on issues pertaining to social justice and human rights. Recently, he co-founded The Fourth with the R.AGE pioneer team to tackle social injustices through documentaries and public-action campaigns.

Yee wasn’t aiming for a career in journalism when he joined R.AGE as a cadet journalist. Previously a youth and lifestyle section that was focused on entertainment news, he pushed for a new direction, investigative journalism, when he was promoted to its editor. Leading a team of young journalists, Yee and his colleagues reported on everything from the spate of child deaths in an Orang Asli (indigenous people) village and sexual predators of children to human trafficking, refugee rights and violence in school.

Besides being nominated for a Peabody award twice, the team has been recognised with numerous other accolades for journalism, social activism, film-making, marketing and digital innovation, including Asian Media Awards, the SOPA Awards and World Digital Media Awards. Yee is also the executive director of The Environmental Reporting Collective, which collaborates on cross-border environmental crime investigations.

In 2021, he was appointed a member of the advisory committee for Pulitzer Centre’s Rainforest Journalism Fund. Yee is also an Obama Foundation Leader and an Acumen Foundation fellow.