Tips and tricks from top investigators
And we don’t mean detectives
Investigative journalists don’t have it easy, especially today, in a media landscape where information is expected to be pushed out as soon as it reaches our fingertips.
In addition, governments are becoming increasingly intolerant of criticism, making documents tiresome for journalists to get their hands on. “One thing that impedes journalism is that we only have access to documents when they are leaked,” said Fairfax’s Kate McClymont.
And then there’s litigation: Siddharth Varadarajan from The Wire in India knows this well. In the past two years, he has had to deal with four cases of defamation.
McClymont, who receives up to five tip-offs a day, says that investigative reporters are sometimes pressured by advertising bodies threatening to pull their advertisements.
“It is great working for a big media organisation where I have legal help on speed dial to tweak words and talk about implications that may arise,” said McClymont.
The Director of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Gerald Ryle, said that “giving tipsters homework” was a way to get documents in your hand quicker — especially when you’re trying to determine if a tip-off is a story.
In December of 2014, Ryle was given a tip from a former worker of a veteran hospital in the U.S who said his chief of staff from the hospital was being called a “candyman” and that he was “zombifying his patients”. Ryle asked his source to give him more information and two weeks later, he was leaked an audit of the hospital that the government was trying to hide.
“This is an example of the benefits of listening to anybody that comes to you,” he said.
However, he did agree that it was hard to get around the “natural waiting” that came with investigative journalism, whether it be waiting for Right To Information requests to be approved or relationships with sources to be cultivated.
The panel discussed ways of being productive during periods where information was pending — their consensus was that sometimes publishing the information you have can create even more leads for you. Siddharth Varadarajan said journalists shouldn’t have to wait until they have the “whole picture”.
“Don’t be afraid to run with what you’ve got,” he said.
Finally, open ears and an open mind are what gets good stories.
“The best pieces are ones hiding in plain sight”, said Varadarajan.
