Staff Writer
WASHIGNTON: The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is a collaboration of some of the world’s top investigative reporters. Launched in 1997 as a project part of the Center for Public Integrity, ICIJ globally extended the Center’s style of watchdog journalism to working with 100 journalists in 50 countries producing long-term, transnational investigations. The center investigates many areas and includes serious projects related to politics, environment, business and finance crime and corruption.
Al Watan Daily interviewed David E. Kaplan the Director of International Consortium of Investigative journalists at the Washington DC. Kaplan explaining the center’s role said “We are a non-profit organization, something like NGO, but we are a media organization.
The non-profit sector in the United States is quite large. Our tax law encourages us to give to charity and education and independent organizations. There is also a strong belief that there should be an independent funding to do serious media away from the commercial one (newspaper, TVs and magazines).”
About the organization’s funding, Kaplan explained that the center receives grants from large and small foundations as well as independent donations from individuals. “We don’t take money to take one story.
We have editorial control, like advertising, but the editors decide what we do and we aren’t hired guns.” added Kaplan.
Regarding the number of investigative reporters who work for this center he said: “We have 30 investigative reporters, more than the Washington Post. So now, because the news media and financial troubles, the non- profit media has become so much stronger and we are getting more (reporters). We will partner the old media such as the Washington Post and CBS news, and BBC. We have done more than 400 investigations and more than 12 books all around the world.”
Replying to Al Watan Daily’s question of whether this organization can investigate the activities of Black Water in Iraq, or stories in Gaza or Syria, Kaplan said:
“Sure we can investigate anything. We always have problems, where some people sue us and some of our reporters are threatened. We go to dangerous places. We did a big series on illegal tobacco substance smuggling because of the high profits related to a secret group of Russian factories who made millions of dollars smuggling cigarettes into the EU. We work with our sources, such as lawyers and human rights activists. We have members all over the world.”
Concerning the elements required when writing an investigative article, Kaplan further noted that “Sometimes journalists call things investigative which are not. Investigation means systematic inquiry.
It means that the journalist should think in terms of a big picture. For instance, in case of a fire, basic reporting would include the editor asking the reporter to cover how many fire engines, how many houses, how many were killed, and maybe you notice the fire hose and the equipments are not working. So you interview the fire fighters and pull the contract of the supplier where later on you would discover that the supplier is the brother of the mayor.
The next factor of investigative article is in-depth investigation reporting. One day is not an investigation, in a week you can do one story.
Our reports for one story can interview 100 people and sometimes we interview the person three times to get the best information.”
About the right of the journalists to be undercover he commented that the reporter should at first get the approval of their editors and being undercover should be used in cases where the story is important and it’s difficult to get the information unless being so.
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