Sources of information
Although a lot of your work may be digging for secrets, you can get a lot of useful information openly from official sources and documents if you know where to look.
Official sources
There are official reports, minutes of meetings, company reports, transcripts of courts or commissions, records of land ownership, police records, even yearbooks, telephone books and electoral lists. By piecing together information from these sources, helped by talking to contacts, you can build up your jigsaw.
For example, if a disco burns down in suspicious circumstances, you can find who might benefit from insurance money by checking who owns it. Look in the company records and land titles records. You might be surprised to find that the person who runs the disco does not really own it. Court records might tell you whether any of the real owners have any criminal records for arson or fraud. Bankruptcy court records might tell you whether the owner is in financial trouble. You build up the picture piece by piece.
Unfortunately, because the situation varies from country to country, it is impossible to give detailed advice here of where you should look for official information. It is something you will have to learn by asking friends, colleagues and contacts - then doing it.
In countries like the United States where there are laws which allow members of the public to examine all sorts of public records, the task of the investigative reporter is made easier - even if it still takes a long time. Freedom of Information (FOI) laws set down rules about which records are open for the public (including journalists) to see. They also include rules on how people can ask to see official information and what to do if information is refused.
If you do not have any FOI laws in your country, perhaps you and your fellow journalists can lobby your politicians to introduce them. (You can get details on FOI laws by contacting journalism associations or councils for civil liberties in countries such as the United States, Britain or Australia.)
If you do not have FOI laws in your country, your Constitution may give you some rights to examine government records. Check this with a good lawyer.
Even if there is no law giving you the right to examine official documents, some public bodies may have rules which allow the public (including journalists) to see certain records. Some court and parliamentary records are usually available for inspection. Your country may also have bodies such as a companies commission, corporate affairs commission, public stock exchange or securities commission which keep records on commercial companies. You should ask if their records are open to public inspection. Most democracies have laws which state that all public companies must produce certain kinds of regular reports (such as annual reports, lists of directors and financial statements). These records may be available for inspection.
The general rule should be: Whether you have a legal right or not to examine records, you should ask to see them. Sometimes you may be lucky and an official will let you see records you are not legally entitled to. Sometimes they may refuse permission, in which case you should find out whether you can appeal to anyone higher up to change the decision.
If you are blocked in your search, why not ask a politician to help out? He or she may have access to records which you have not been able to see. Politicians may agree to help either because they want to help to expose wrongdoing or because it will help them against their opponents.
Overseas information
You may need information about foreign governments, companies or organizations. Perhaps the company you are investigating is based overseas. You could try to get information or help from a number of organizations such as international news services, universities, international computer databases, foreign embassies or lobby groups such as Greenpeace or Amnesty International.
If your story has connections with another country, contact a news organization in that country and agree to work on the investigation together, sharing information and ideas. If the story is big enough, they might even send their journalists to work with you.
Gathering evidence
It is never ethical to trick people to gain evidence for a story, but you can sometimes set your own trap without lying.
For example, if you are investigating a story about Garage X which is charging customers for repairs it never makes, you can test that garage yourself. Perhaps get a faulty car and first take it to a government inspection station or a reputable garage, who will tell you exactly what faults it has. Then take the car to Garage X, posing as an ordinary customer, not telling them that you are a journalist. When they say they have completed the repairs, take the car back to the original garage that you trust, and get a report from them on whether or not the repairs have been done. You or your colleagues will need to do this several times before you can be sure that Garage X really is cheating people, not just making mistakes in its work. Then you should confront the Garage X owner with your evidence and ask him to explain.
A word of warning here: do not encourage anyone to break the law. In some countries, such as the United States, this is called "entrapment" and is illegal. For example, if you hear that Mister Y is taking bribes to issue building permits, you must not go up to Mr Y posing as a builder and offer him money - that may be illegal. However, you can go up to Mr Y and ask for a permit and explain that you need it urgently. If he then asks for a bribe, you have your story.
No comments:
Post a Comment