Is Investigative Journalism dead?

      In contemporary Jamaican society many individuals have written off investigative journalism and have pronounced it dead. A letter to the editor appeared in The Jamaica Gleaner from Tyrrell Morris that was rather eyebrow raising when read. The article was entitled “Where is the Investigative Journalism?” and expressed the writer’s distaste of the so-called lack of work that journalists in Jamaica are initiating when it relates to perusing in depth investigations. The 2019 article highlighted only one of example where he believed little or no investigation was done. He described the work of Journalists as lazy and expressed that he is frustrated by it. Morris also mentioned that the only instance that investigative journalism was practiced was by Janice Budd on CVM’s Probe of that same topic.
     From an opinionated stance, complete agreement with the idea that investigative journalism is dead in Jamaica does not share a cohesive thought. This disagreement is for very good reasons. There are countless examples, especially recent ones where extensive research was exerted into Investigative Journalism and the numerous awards won for Investigative Journalism at the Press Association of Jamaica Journalism Awards this year. The cases vary depending on the nature of the story. It is clear the writer of this editorial did not do any research before sending this letter or if he did, it was not enough as ignorance was evident.

With reference to the only example that was given in the article claiming that not enough probing was done for the report, it is evident that the information the writer was seeking could not be obtained as the case was ongoing. However, if one really pays attention to the news, especially TVJ news, you will realize stories presented there show the amount of legwork that is put into it. A few cases are the corruption story at the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA), Ruel Ried’s pool of corruption, and the Petrojam Scandal. These are huge stories that require a great deal of scrutiny. A smaller story such as one that was reported on TVJ News on May 28, 2019, regarding a police officer who was held in custody because he allegedly killed his wife TVJ’s Shemala Pullen went on the scene of the crime, spoke to the deceased niece and mother and later provided updates on the matter. Is that not Investigative Journalism? Perhaps the writer’s meaning of investigative journalism is different from the posited definition of the term. According to dictionary.cambridge.org, it is a type of journalism that seeks to discover information of public interest that someone is trying to hide.

It is unfair for Morris to say that Investigative Journalists in Jamaica are being “lazy,” because the awards issued by the Press Association of Jamaica denotes that there is work being done in that regard. According to a publication in the Gleaner on December 3, 2017, the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for investigative journalism award went to Dania Bogle from The Gleaner and Jordan Forte from TVJ. A November 2018 report on RJR News revealed that Giovanni Dennis of TVJ won three awards including one for Investigative Journalism. The Jamaica Observer gave more flesh on the awards of  2018 where it is stated that the President's Award for Investigative Journalism went to  Giovanni Dennis, TVJ for Pothole Paradise and the Certificate of Merit: Andrea Chisholm, TVJ for  FLA License Series. Is this not evidence of Investigative Journalism being commended, or does the PAJ normally give away awards like these on a yearly basis for no apparent reason? These are the two most recent PAJ Journalism Awards.

In regards to the example used by Morris about the Uchence Wilson Gang trial,   it is safe to say that given the circumstances the information reported was all that could be obtained because a Journalists cannot interview a witnesses without adhering to the code of ethics. Added to that is the fact that these witnesses are usually afraid to talk to Journalists especially about information they house related to the trials. If a reporter cannot get a person to talk about something, they cannot force them to do so, it is highly unethical and may tarnish journalist’s career.

     On the other hand, using the Australian example, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney warned at the recent Defend Media Freedom conference in London that the decline in press freedom is not limited to non-democracies like North Korea.Another gloomy tale for news outlets is falling levels of public trust as more fake news confuses people about what is real and what is not. Sadly, powerful world leaders from Donald Trump to Rodrigo Duterte weaponized the term “fake news” to weaken news media’s legitimacy.

     It was a breath of fresh air when freelance journalist and writer Kate Chappell recently brought a community journalism training program entitled “Building a Journalist with Integrity and Impact” to my attention. Chappell, along with Zahra Burton of Global Reporters for the Caribbean, have been working with Omar Lewis, Civil Society Coordinator at National Integrity Action (NIA) and Ian McKnight, Chief of Party USAID COMET II, to train about 30 community members in investigative journalism and will be publishing 10 pieces (in print, radio and television outlets such as ROOTS FM, MORE FM, The Gleaner and POWER 106) produced by the novice journalists in the next few weeks. The aim of the program is to cultivate investigative skills as well as to hold authorities accountable by using tools such as the Access to Information Act (ATI).

With that being said, the digital age is a renaissance period for investigative reporting. This has been made possible through collaboration and scaling up investigations to national and transnational levels.

 Below is the link to the featured article for reference.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20171203/rjrgleaner-group-reporters-take-top-honours-paj-awards

https://www.adnews.com.au/opinion/debunking-the-myth-that-investigative-journalism-is-dying