Uncovering the guarded secrets

Introduction to investigative journalism:

Gaston de Rosayro

Investigative journalism is finding, reporting and presenting news which other people try to conceal. It is very similar to standard news reporting, except that the people at the centre of the story will usually not help you and may even try to stop you doing your job.

The job of journalists is to let people know what is going on in the community, the society and the world around them. Journalists do this by finding facts and telling them to their readers or listeners.

In much of their work, the facts are easy to find in such places as the courts and parliaments, disasters, public meetings, churches and sporting events. People are usually happy to provide journalists with news. Indeed, in many countries, thousands of people work full time in public relations, giving statements, comments, press releases and other forms of information to journalists.

Throughout the world, though, there are still a lot of things happening which people want to keep secret. In most cases these are private things which have no impact on other people - such as relations within a family or a bad report from school. These personal things can remain secret.

In many other cases, governments, companies, organisations and individuals try to hide decisions or events which affect other people. When a journalist tries to report on matters which somebody wants to keep secret, this is investigative journalism.

The great British newspaper publisher Lord Northcliffe once said: “News is what somebody, somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.”

There are several reasons why societies need investigative journalism. They include:

* People have a right to know about the society in which they live. They have a right to know about decisions which may affect them, even if people in power want to keep them secret.

* People in power - whether in government, the world of commerce, or any other group in society - can abuse that power. They can be corrupt, steal money, break laws and do all sorts of things which harm other people. They might just be incompetent and unable to do their job properly. They will usually try to keep this knowledge secret. Journalists try to expose such abuse.

* Journalists also have a duty to watch how well people in power perform their jobs, especially those who have been elected to public office. Journalists should constantly ask whether such people are keeping their election promises. Politicians and others who are not keeping their promises may try to hide the fact; journalists should try to expose it.

Of course, journalists are not the only people in society who should expose incompetence, corruption, lies and broken promises. We also have parliaments, councils, courts, commissions, the police and other authorities.

The police often take people to court for breaking laws. But sometimes they do not have the time, staff or skills to catch and correct every case of abuse. Also, they cannot do anything against people who behave badly without actually breaking any laws.

So journalists have a role as well. The difference is that when journalists expose wrongdoing, they cannot punish people. Journalists can only bring wrongdoing into the light of public attention and hope that society will do the rest, to punish wrongdoers or to change a system which is at fault.

Who should we investigate? Journalists should be able to expose abuse, corruption and criminal activities in all fields of public life. These relate primarily to Governments, Companies and Criminals.

Governments: These range from local councils to national parliaments and foreign governments. Sometimes politicians and public servants are actually corrupt and should be exposed and removed from office.

But often they hide a decision because they know the public may not like it. They might keep a deal they have made with a foreign timber company secret because it will harm the environment or destroy people's homes. Often politicians and public servants spend so long in office that they forget that the public has the right to know what is happening.

If the public elects people to office and gives them taxes and other forms of wealth to administer, the public has the right to know what they are doing. The electors should also know so that they can decide how to vote at the next election.

Companies: Some companies break the law and should be exposed. But companies usually like to keep activities secret for other reasons. Perhaps they have made a mistake or lost money. You have to keep your eye on Government-owned enterprises in particular because they are accountable to the public.

Perhaps they do not want competitors to steal their secrets or they do not want people to oppose a development they are planning. However, even private companies have some responsibility towards the public. Companies are part of each society. They usually make some use of natural resources, take money from customers and shareholders, provide jobs for people and use services provided by all taxpayers. Where their activities affect the rest of the community, the community has a right to know what they are doing.

Criminals: Although governments and companies can be corrupt, criminals make their living at it. They act like leeches on the community, so your readers and listeners have the right to know about them. Fighting crime is, of course, mainly the job of the police and legal system. But sometimes they do not have enough resources to do their jobs properly. Sometimes the law itself limits their powers. Also, the police and judiciary can sometimes be corrupt themselves. So journalists - like every law-abiding citizen - have the duty to expose wrongdoing.

There are, of course, all sorts of other individuals and organisations who like to hide things which affect the public. A charity may try to hide the fact that it is not doing a good job with money it has been given. A football club might be secretly negotiating to move its ground against the wishes of its fans. A man might be selling coloured water as a cure for every illness. All these things need to be exposed so that the public can make up its mind whether to support them or not.

Let us discuss some basic rules about investigative reporting before we move on to the practical techniques.

Most newspapers, radio and television stations get a lot of requests from people to 'investigate' some alleged wrongdoing. In many cases these are silly matters, lies or hoaxes. But you should spend some time on each tip-off, to decide whether or not it will make a story.

You should judge all topics for investigative reporting on the criteria for what makes news. Is it new, unusual, interesting, significant and about people? Sometimes, the story might only affect one person and be so trivial that it is not worth following up. Remember you have limited time and resources, so you cannot follow every story idea. Use your news judgment.

Next week: Fitting the facts together