Experiences of Investigative Journalists

Andrew Jennings, a journalist who has been banned from all press conferences of FIFA, reported about cases of corruption in this association. The laywer Jim Nicol commented how he co-operates with journalists to free wrongly convicted prisoners, and journalists of the South African newspaper The Daily Dispatch explained how they compiled their award-winning stories both about xenophobic attacks on Somalis in South Africa in the last years and the insufficent South African housing policy.

The opportunity to ask many questions about investigative journalism were provided to the participants. How can one get classified documents? How much time should one spend on an investigation? How does one behave appropriately if the jurisdiction is so unclear that one cannot know when the news coverage is assessed as defamation? These circumstances can lead to sensitive cuts like closing of the whole media outlet.

Besides listening to the presentations, the participants were trained on computer assisted researches. They got an introduction in the work with Excel, learnt how can they research more tightly focused with search engines and in databases and how they can use social networks as an instrument of investigative work.

University lecturer as multiplicator

Two days earlier the CAJE (Conference of African Journalism Educators) took place in Johannesburg. The Media Programme invited journalism lecturers from several African countries. The participants of CAJE also attended the Wits Power Reporting Workshop whereby they gained additional knowledge on Investigative Journalism. Moreover, the Media Programme set itself the target to distribute the information provided in these two conferences not only to the CAJE participants but, beyond that, to the students of lecturers.