United Nations Educational, Scientic and Cultural Organization UNESCO Series on Journalism Education Edited by Mark Lee Hunter UNESCO Series on Journalism Education Published in 2012 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France © UNESCO 2012 All rights reserved ISBN 978-92-3-001089-8 Cover design by Anne Barcat The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its fron- tiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not neces- sarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Typeset and printed by UNESCO Printed in France Table of Contents Foreword: Presenting The Global Investigative Journalism Casebook TT/ !"#$%&'() Introduction: *++, +- ./0&'(1 )( 23+-4-+&'(1 1( 0-+&'(5 5( 6++4&'(7 Chapter One Chapter Six Filed but not forgotten / p. 11 Following the money: ( 3-+8 frauds and offshore funds / p. 149 +3'92&'()1 ($'+3-&'()>? :(;:3-+4&'(1) :(%+(&'()>A 2%(3+&'()@) Chapter Two 26-(/C++&'()@> The ground beneath our feet: 26+('+&'()@< investigating social phenomena / p. 27 (6+++&'(1< Chapter Seven :(4-3+ Traffickers and tyrants / p. 171 3'8++3+ (/4&)71 +3-+'&'(=) 2%( +3&'()75 (#'8 26-( 3&'(>? '+3&'()7< :(;8+-4 ++#'&'()<5 Chapter Three Can this planet be saved? (64-&'()A1 Investigating the environment / p. 67 ($+&'(@A Chapter Eight :(3+8+ When the game is fixed: 3+3&'(7A investigating sport / p. 201 (3 1?1 :(0-,+&'(1)1 Chapter Four Who’s in charge here? Investigating (*- ' -+1??@*'&'(1)A the crisis of governance / p. 93 ($3+++2+''&'(A= 2%(!'7?B++ Chapter Nine '&'(A> The war on terror / p. 229 26-(0+'C&'(AA (6+38+- :(6+33&'()?@ ''&'(15? :(0+-&'(1=@ Chapter Five The local face of globalisation / p. 119 (3-&'()1? :(D+8 6+/&'()1> (#,'3'&'()5@ Foreword: Presenting The Global Investigative Journalism Casebook M he role that media can play as a watchdog is indispensable for democracy and it is for this reason that UNESCO fully supports initiatives to strengthen investigative T journalism throughout the world. Investigative journalism signifies the unveiling of matters that are concealed either deliberately, by someone in a position of power, or accidentally, behind a mass of facts and circumstances, and the analysis and exposure of all relevant facts to the public. In this way, investigative journalism crucially contributes to freedom of expression and freedom of information, which lie at the heart of UNESCO’s mandate. Following the successful launch of Story-Based Inquiry: A Manual for Investigative Journalists (UNESCO 2009), which has been adopted by many journalism programmes in the Arab States, Asia, the United States of America and the Russian Federation, we are pleased to present The Global Investigative Journalism Casebook. Designed with users in mind, the Casebook serves as a complementary material for training purposes. It will also enable and enhance the exchange of good practices and networking in investigative journalism throughout the world. The Casebook contains more than 20 recent investigative stories from nearly every region of the world, covering a wide variety of topical subjects and of special interest to UNESCO such as freedom of information, good governance, social and legal issues, the environment, health and gender to name but a few, each followed by an explanation of how the authors conduc- ted their research and the writing of the piece. Many of the authors belong to the Global Investigative Journalism Network, and their stories exemplify the cutting-edge techniques and high standards developed within this network. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Mark Lee Hunter and all those who contributed to the Casebook. We believe this knowledge resource serves as an ideal complement to the training manual, providing a valuable learning opportunity for jour- nalists and media professionals, as well as for journalism trainers and educators. It will also be used by UNESCO field offices to conduct journalism training on investigative reporting. At a time of a widening communications ecosystem, journalism today needs to clearly show its key value-add to the public interest. In this light, credible investigative stories, like the kind promoted in this book, are increasingly pivotal to public confirmation of the continuing importance of professional journalistic work in the coming years. ‹ 1 Introduction: Why this book exists, and how to use it 1. Putting how over why When I brought investigators to my journalism class at the Institut français de Presse, masters students often turned into children. They would marvel at these strange heroes who uncovered secrets and dared to make enemies. They would ask things like, “Were you scared?” Finally I told them, Stop admiring these people so much. It’s a way of telling yourself that you can’t be like them. Stop asking why they do the job, and start asking how, so you can do it too. This was unfair of me, in one specific way: The why of investigative reporting can’t be taken for granted. I tell people that we do the job to change the world (and ourselves). But the world doesn’t always do what we prove it should do. It just goes on being what it was. That leaves only one reason we can count on for motivation: We try to leave a true record of what we were, what we did, how we lived or died. In the process, we say to the people who lived the stories we tell, Yes it happened, and no, it wasn’t just or fair. I said that to a man I was writing about once in so many words, and I also said: My story will prove you were right, but it won’t fix your life. He said: “So?” He had lost hope, but he was glad to have company. To our mutual amazement, when the story was published he got his career back. But that was the part I couldn’t promise, and neither can you. The only promise you can surely keep is to tell the story. Is that enough? Perhaps not. But if you don’t believe that telling the true story matters, whether or not you get a material result, you should do something else with your life. Either you think telling that is a meaningful thing to do, or you don’t. If you don’t, nothing anyone might say will convince you. That’s fine, because nothing you might say can convince me otherwise, either. This book exists to help you tell such stories. The Global Investigative Journalism Casebook 2 ‹ Preface: Why this book exists, and how to use it 2. How to use this book The idea for this collection began during a seminar for investigative reporters in Dakar, Senegal, where I was teaching from Story-Based Inquiry: A Manual for Investigative Journalists, my previous (2009) collaboration with UNESCO. Participants observed that they might have a better idea of how to investigate if they had a common understanding of what a good investigative story looks like. Of course I had brought some samples with me, and of course (because that is the way trainers and intellectual property rights tend to function) most of those stories were by me or my masters students, whose work at a French public university was public property. But they wanted something else and something more; specifically, they wanted to know what journalists around the world were doing. Were they facing the same problems of access to information, and if so, how were they solving them? Were they dealing with publics who paid attention to their work, or did they have to fight for attention? How did they organise themselves, and how did they turn their information into stories? This book tries to answer those questions, and to satisfy the desire that underlies them – the desire for reporters everywhere to feel that they too can contribute to the renaissance of investigative journalism. This is a movement, and anyone who practices investigative journalism can join. (Not everyone does; there are still practitioners who prefer to follow their own paths, and that’s fine.) Its members are the great majority of contributors to this book. I’ll say more about the movement later. My first objective was to gather a broad range of material, from within and outside the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) – I’m proud to be a founding member – that embodies best practice in terms of information gathering and storytelling. A second objective was to persuade our contributors to share their methods of conception, research, organisation and composition – the foundation blocks of investigative work. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’re not likely to find it (as Edwy Plenel of France said so beautifully). If you don’t know where and how to look, you won’t find much even if you have the right idea. If you can’t organise the material, you’ll make slow and meagre use of it. And if you can’t tell a good story, who cares about the rest? We decided to start with the print medium, because it is the most accessible – you only need a notebook and a pencil – and because writing skills transpose into different media very well. In other words, if you can write a good story, your chances of writing well for video or radio go up. When I sent out a call for material through the GIJN and other journalistic organisa- tions, Story-based Inquiry was the main international manual that integrates conception, research and writing.