Cash boost for investigative journalism in Africa

The announcement was made on Thursday, 8 February 2007, at Wits University in Johannesburg by Caxton Professor Anton Harber, of Wits School of Journalism and Birgit Schwarz, director of Wits Investigative Journalism Workshop (IJW).

Prof Harber said: “This announcement is of a huge significance for a couple of reasons: not only it is the country’s biggest media prize, but also because it comes from a non-commercial organisation, which makes it free from various constraints imposed by commercial sponsors.”

The funds come from the Valley Trust, an organisation set up by Kuiper, a successful South African publisher of Dutch origin, shortly before his death in 2004, with the aim of promoting investigative journalism.

“We are pleased to be part of this initiative,” Prof Harber said, adding that this sponsorship is a long commitment that will focus entirely on the encouragement and recognition of probing, in-depth journalism.

Defined

According to Prof Harber, investigative journalism can be defined by distinguishing “proactive” and “responsive” journalism. Former Mail & Guardian editor Howard Barell says investigative journalism consists of reporting and uncovering undisclosed facts that one believes are of a matter of public interest.

Some hold that investigative journalism involves in-depth reporting in the public interest, while others regard this concept of journalism as a myth – an extension of what good journalism should really be, wrote Derek Forbes in his book A Watchdog’s Guide to Investigative Reporting (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2005).

Whatever it really is, investigative journalism is perhaps the most daring and ‘sophisticated’ form of journalism.

But some media owners simply reject investigative journalism, saying it is time-consuming, costly and sometimes dangerous, and can lead to lawsuits, and therefore refuse to fund it.

This massive cash boost will probably motivate many reporters who often complain of lack of resources and skills to conduct a proper and in-depth investigation.

However, IJW’s Schwarz said: “We are not necessarily looking for a big break. Any outstanding story related to social investigation on a South African contemporary issue is eligible as long as it makes a serious impact.”

Empower

Madimetja Makgoka, senior reporter for the Limpopo-based newspaper Seipone and an IJW investigative trainee told Bizcommunity.com: “These funds will empower many passionate but poor journalists, who lack resources and operate in economically-underdeveloped areas. It will also encourage many young and aspiring reporters to get more involved in investigative journalism, which they consider too daring and ‘heavy’.”

The Wits’ investigative journalism training is sponsored by USAID-South Africa, which was represented at the event by Reverie Zurba, its development outreach and communications officer.

Two training sessions were held last year at the Institute of the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ), and an international conference on investigative journalism took place at Wits University’s Sports Administration.

As things stand, at least three SA newspapers have fulltime investigative teams and TV programmes such as M-Net’s Carte Blanche and SABC3’s Special Assignment are also doing this sort of work, Prof Harber told Bizcommunity.com.

But while investigative reporting in South Africa is ‘sitting pretty well’, its future looks uncertain and bleak in the rest of Africa, where the lack of press freedom, a weak and corrupt judiciary, autocratic rule and poor human rights records are rife.