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Gulafshon Sokieva: What is investigative journalism and how should it be conducted?

A journalistic investigation is material that reveals public issues, corruption, law violations, abuse of authority/power or information that was previously kept secret from the public for any reason.

A journalist can only conduct a successful journalistic investigation by following a specific plan. That is, before starting a journalistic investigation, there must be clear plan for its implementation.

In order to conduct a journalistic investigation, choosing a topic is a very important step. A journalist should know where the law has been violated and where the abuse of power has occurred.

Do not forget that the topic of our investigation should be of public importance. If you want to investigate a topic that has no reader, do not waste your time on this topic. Better not tackle such topics.

A journalist can conduct journalistic investigations in any field, but he/she must remember that the subject of this investigation should be the detection of a crime, bribery and violation of the law. For example, a journalist may conduct investigative journalism in the following areas:

 

  • Politics 
  • Crime
  • Finance
  • Society issues

 

If a journalist wants to conduct political investigations, he or she can conduct investigations on election campaigns, party activities, appointments in the civil service, legislation, and income statements of politicians.

If a journalist wants to conduct an investigation, in which he or she finds a crime, then the subject of this journalistic investigations may be violations of human rights, justice, smuggling or human trafficking.

The identification of corruption schemes is one of the favorite topics of investigative journalists. To work in this area, journalists can study the following areas: the first part is – public finance: For example:

 

  1. public goods
  2. state budget
  3. tax benefits
  4. public procurement

 

 

The second part is open data on personal finances: banks, loans, corporate financial insurance, investment market participants can also be good topics for journalistic investigations.

Photo by Oleg Khomenok

For newcomers to journalistic investigations, it is often recommended to start by researching topics related to social issues. It is better to conduct journalistic research in the fields of education, health, utilities, benefits for the poor, state social programs and so on.

Another requirement of a journalistic investigation is the existence of a hypothesis and its confirmation. A hypothesis is an assumption, interpretation, or statement that a journalist proves or disproves in the course of his/her investigation. The hypothesis clarifies the subject and the investigation process. The hypothesis should answer the following questions: who, what, how, as a result of which, why is the law being violated and what are the consequences?

In order to explore a certain topic, it is important to formulate key questions. Answers to questions help us prove or refute our hypothesis. Informational questions can help gather evidence. Next, we need to formulate assessment questions that we will need to collect opinions and comments on the topic.

The next part of the journalistic investigation is the sources of information. Who can provide answers to the questions asked and where these respondents they can be found? 

In addition to people who have important information, documents, organizations, social networks, archives, databases, and media can act as sources of information.

Methods of collecting material are also considered as an integral part of journalistic investigations, which include the following sections:

– Personal observation

– Access to documents

– Interviewing people

– Research, analytics, and diagnostics.

We go for a general interview when we already know everything. The purpose of the general interview is to get clarifications and comments of the protagonist of the investigation.

After we found all the necessary information and conducted a general interview, we proceed to layout, design and editing of the text.

After our journalistic investigation is completed, the finished material must undergo a legal examination before it can be published. Legal expertise is a guarantee of security for both the journalist and the media, where the journalist works or publishes the investigation.

One of the main recommendations when conducting journalistic investigation is to preserve the archive. The collected materials will help to quickly return to the topic in the future. In addition, the materials serve as evidence if the protagonist of the investigation goes to court.

It is likely that an investigative journalist may encounter similar problems when conducting a journalistic investigation. That is, there is always a legal risk that a criminal or administrative case may be brought against a journalist.

Other risks are threats to the reputation, work, and even health of the journalist or his or her personal life. In order to minimize the potential risks for any investigative journalist, it is important not to forget to follow the above-mentioned scheme when conducting a journalistic investigation.

Further reading: Study guides for journalistic investigations (Posted by Mark Lee Hunter, reprinted by IWPR in 2015)

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