Gavin Macfadyen, director of Centre for Investigative Journalism in London. Speech last year at another event.

Speech:

What we are here to celebrate is of course Investigative Journalism!

It is “uncovering something somebody wants kept secret”and

Exposing social conditions or institutional conduct that has been ignored, by-passed or kept hidden in fear of governments and the wealthy and powerful.

The central social importance of investigative reporting is its ability to raise the public alarm over issues of corruption, injustice, secrecy, poverty and public safety

It’s

To Right Wrongs

To Defend the Public Interest

To have an Unusual Preoccupation with Evidence

To know the phrase: “without fear or favour”

To seek the private reality behind the public face

To be a voice for those without one.

It is to Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable.

To know that all governments lie

Moreover, to quote Joseph Pulitzer, that “A journalist has no Friends"

To know that 75% of almost every newspaper and television reports are entirely handouts, Parliamentary statements, PR releases and puffs.

To know that official secrets are rarely to protect the public, but to cover-up crimes, frauds, incompetence, and even conspiracy.

To know that the worst crimes are not committed with a gun, but a fountain pen.

To know that sunlight is the best disinfectant.

It is one of the few jobs where you can get paid to be imprisoned, beaten up, threatened with death, arrested in foreign countries, to be shot at, forced to use cover stories, tell lies to dangerous men and have a awful family life.

Almost no government has ever honoured an independent and critical editor or journalist.

But without investigative journalism, abuse of power flourishes, accountability is forgotten, the officious and the brutal gain confidence.

However stirring, this special journalism has been under sustained attack for over twenty years. It has been weakened because of growing corporate ownership, an absence of opposition in government – all in a climate of cost cutting and profit taking at almost any price.

Where the national media motto becomes “Celebrities and Amnesia!” The endless talk shows, soaps, reality programmes, soft celebrity gossip, light comedy and lifestyle – in Britain it’s the wonders of repainting your toilet, and installing a wonderful new vibrating sofa. There are now six travel shows, nine cooking shows. It’s dumbing down on a vast scale. What Newton Minnow described as a vast wasteland. A stupendous cultural and educational opportunity squandered, and by definition, the public interest betrayed

Television investigative programming has virtually disappeared or been replaced with celebrity tabloid “exposes.” Despite their great size and influence, few newspapers regularly finance investigative teams and projects. Disturbingly there are only a handful of women reporters working infrequently in this area. A critical range of important women’s and social issues are therefore seldom addressed. Indeed situations where access would be denied to a male investigator remain unreported.

In the US, corporate media with this agenda has becoming less willing to finance long-term investigations; US networks now have almost no foreign bureaus and few investigative teams worthy of the name. For three years of the Iraq war, almost no part of the media exposed the lies and misrepresentations that justified the illegal invasion of another country. In addition, when a truthful but controversial report about government was broadcast on CBS, the counter attack was fierce, and well-known reporters sacked.

In one disturbing case, the reporter who discovered links between cocaine trafficking and the CIA was driven to suicide.

In Britain, the situation has declined further. The government counterattack against the BBC’s critical reports caused the departure of a leading reporter, his immediate boss, the Director General and the appointment of an entirely new Board of Governors. The BBC is still reeling. And now for the bad news!

I’m only kidding.

In France and Germany, there are well resourced investigations. Without the conservatizing role of the Iraq war, the tide has begun to change. 90 Minutes at Canal Plus has produced powerful documentaries identifying major pharmaceutical companies with fraudulent and criminal practice. They have turned the light on huge environmental devastations, racial and class scandals in housing, education and crime.

American Universities, and US foundations like Knight, Park, Ford and Soros are financing serious investigative training, the fight to retain freedom from surveillance, preventing the erosion of Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Information. There is now more training, at more universities than at any time since the 60’s.

While the main networks continue to discount serious journalism, PBS Frontline has broadcast major investigations. Many are jointly financed with the New York Times and Lowell Bergman’s investigation of industrial injuries at one big southern company gave him and his team a Pulitzer Prize. Independent foundations supported and made possible all these disclosures.

As we meet here, Bill Moyers, former President Carter’s Press Secretary, is broadcasting a television series openly attacking the mainstream media for capitulating to President Bush and the lies about Iraq and Al Quida.

Seymour Hersh, writing in a magazine not known at all for investigative reporting, exposed the crimes at Abu Gharaib, the Bush administration’s war plans against Iran, and the vast corruption of the Halliburton companies.

Others have opened the garbage can of worms in the role of private military companies, and the appalling medical treatment of returning soldiers. It is significant that the first act of the administration in the war was to ban the press from independent reporting. There was to be no reports except from those “embedded” with the generals. Rights were restricted. No US or foreign cameraman could show pictures to the public of dead American soldiers; could ask hostile questions to the President; to interview wounded soldiers - even to visit Army hospitals, or military cemeteries. The government refused to publish figures on civilian casualties

One report last month documented the theft of uncounted tens of billions of dollars on shrink-wrapped pallets unloaded from giant transports somewhere in Baghdad airport. The government claims not to know what happened to literally tons of money. Equally, shipments of thousands of weapons have “disappeared”.

Well-resourced investigations have now made public what actually happened in New Orleans. These reports brought to the public, corruption and incompetence in the disappearance of vast sums of public money on non-existent projects, including food, medicine, temporary housing, and rescue equipment. Hundreds of tons of emergency food was never provided to the hungry and was discovered by the press only a month ago.

The Internet has also expanded where important investigations now frequently appear in Salon, Counter-Punch, Huffington and the Consortium. Millions read these every week.

In Britain, books by Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko are on sale in airports. In an awful way her death reopened scepticism and anger about the Putin regime and why Prime Minister Blair said nothing for days about her assassination. A freelance reporter, Stephen Grey, using ingenious methods and serious computer analysis broke the Extraordinary Rendition story. He worked with colleagues in Sweden and completed their work with computer experts at the New York Times. His work saved hundreds from beatings, torture, and disappearances at Guantanamo, Bagram and Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Poland and far too many places.

In Chicago, not too long ago a professor and a handful of his graduate students started the Innocence Project. One journalism student and one lawyer - a team – each looked at one prisoner on Death Row. They did something that had never happened before. It is now being copied at other Universities in America and in Europe.

The work of these students exposed fabricated police evidence and would result in the freeing of 13 inmates _ then they were joined by reporters from the Chicago press. More innocent men were freed.

The governor, a Bush Republican, resigned and has toured the US speaking against capital punishment. He had been complicit is many wrongful killings. Ironically, the Governor, who found his conscience in this case, is being prosecuted for corruption in another.

When investigative reporting was in its greatest decline perhaps 6 or 7 years ago, it was harder perhaps to see its attractiveness. When serious investigations appear, people talk about it, many know. Driven by word of mouth, Sales rise, viewing figures climb, programs acquire real credibility and more importantly still, they begin to achieve a loyal following. When news really affects people, they talk about it and they will follow it. This seems to be true in most countries.

It also affects the culture of the press. Editors and producers become more sophisticated practitioners, or more combative, knowing how to use media law to enable rather than brake exposure. Building viewers and readers by more aggressive reporting. While print is powerful, the necessity is to use it to improve the life of South Africans and build a powerful, well informed electorate.

Investigative reporting’s long slide into history is clearly over and the long recovery has begun. This awards ceremony for investigative reporting is a powerful proof. It will I hope encourage reporters and raise the flag of public purpose and interest. It is a real honour to be here to see it. Without any exaggeration, Investigative journalism around the world is back.

End

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