REPORTING

Prof. SAURABH DESHPANDE

TOPIC

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

INTRODUCTION

• It’s about digging deeply into an issue or topic• The issue or topic has to be of public interest• It’s a process, not an event• It’s original and proactive• It’s a process, not an event• It’s original and proactive• “Investigative reporting reveals scandals, and

shames the individuals involved.”

• It should produce new information or put together previously available information in a new way to reveal its significance

• It should be multi-sourced• Because of its in-depth nature, it calls for

greater resources, teamworking and time than a routine news report

• “Investigative reporting is simply good reporting.”

• “Investigative reporting uncovers secrets somebody wants to keep hidden.”

Some Major Scandals of India and around the World

WATERGATE SCANDAL HARSHAD MEHTA SCAM

cobbler's scam tehelka

WATERGATE SCANDAL

The Post Investigates• Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward• Burglar James McCord was on the payroll of 

President Nixon's reelection committee.• Nixon and chief of staff H.R. Haldeman privately 

discussed how to get the CIA to tell the FBI to back off

• Former CIA officer E. Howard Hunt and former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy

• $25,000 check for Nixon's reelection campaign had been deposited in the bank account of one of the burglars.

• Mark Felt, a high ranking official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation

• Attorney General John Mitchell controlled a secret fund

• a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage

• Katharine Graham worried about the administration's "unveiled threats and harassment."

• In April 1973, four of Nixon's top aides lost their jobs, including chief of staff Haldeman, chief domestic policy adviser, John Ehrlichman, Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and Dean himself

• Archibald Cox and Sam Ervin were  chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee

• The scandal had spread beyond the original burglary.

• Hunt and Liddy, had broken into the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg

• Nixon had a secret taping system that recorded his phone calls and conversations in the Oval Office

• “Executive Privilege“• White House agreed to provide written 

summaries of the taped conversations• Ervin accepted the deal but Cox rejected it• Nixon ordered Attorney General Richardson to 

fire Cox• Richardson resigned rather than carry out the 

order• Solicitor General Robert Bork became the 

acting attorney general and he dismissed Cox

• Nixon was forced to appoint a new special prosecutor

• A prominent Texas lawyer named Leon Jaworski

• One of the key tapes sought by investigators contained 18-minute erasure that White House officials had trouble explaining

• Nixon declared at a press conference: "I am not a crook,“

• On Dec. 31, 1973 Jaworski issued a report saying that besides the original seven burglars, 12 other persons had pleaded guilty

• Nixon rejected accusations of wrongdoing and insisted he would stay in office

• Special prosecutor Jaworski and the Senate Watergate Committee continued to demand that the White House turn over tapes and transcripts

• He insisted that he had made mistakes but broke no laws.

• To release the tapes, he said, would harm future chief executives

• To mollify his critics, Nixon announced in April 1974 the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of conversations between him and his aides

• Nixon's legal defense began to crumble in May when a federal court ruled in favor of Jaworksi

• Nixon's lawyers appealed the decision to the Supreme Court

• On July 24, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the White House to hand over the tapes

• On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation

• "Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself."

HARSHAD MEHTA SCAM

• Harshad Mehta(Big Bull) was an Indian stockbroker

• He siphoned off funds from inter-bank transactions

• bought shares heavily at a premium across many segments, triggering a rise in the Sensex.

• Scheme was exposed, the banks started demanding the money back causing the collapse

• He was later charged with 72 criminal offenses

• More than 600 civil action suits were filed against him

• He died in 2001 with many litigations still pending against him.

• The recent Hindi movie 'Gafla' showed this scam in a different perspective.

Cobbler’s scam

• Detected in 1995, the shoe scam involved Rs 1,600 crore and was investigated for two years

• For years, big shoe companies had floated bogus co-operatives and taken benefit of government schemes meant only for cobblers

• The accused include former Mumbai sheriff and socialite Sadruddin Daya (Dawood Shoes), Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Abu Asim Azmi (Citywalk Shoes), Rafiq Tejani (Metro Shoes) and Kishore Singapurkar (Milano Shoes)

• The case is still waiting for a trial

• Tehelka is an Indian weekly magazine under the editorship of Tarun Tejpal.

• The publication began in 2000 as a news website, Tehelka.com.

• It got public attention, but it was the defense sting, called Operation Westend that got it the international attention, which led to the resignation of Indian Defence Minister.

Tehelka Expose

Some Major stories covered by TEHELKA:

• Operation West End

• Armoured Recovery Vehicles

• Barak Missile System

• The Truth: Gujarat 2002

Difficulties faced in investigative journalism

• Constant threats of legal action• Convincing insiders• Lack of co-operation of government• Mistrust from those who possess information• No access to official documents• Lack of financial means• Death threats and intimidation

• Requires a lot of money.• One may have to buy documents• Pay for expenses for transport and

communication• Resort to leaks, private detectives and

others, all in need of finance• It is extremely difficult to get comments from

the government

Sting operation

• A complicated confidence game planned and executed with great care (especially an operation implemented by undercover agents to apprehend criminals)

• “In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime”

• A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather evidence of the suspect's wrongdoing.

Where Sting Operations are being used:

• Fencing and Stolen Property• Drug Dealing• Sales of Alcohol and Tobacco to Minors• Prostitution• Vehicle-Related Crime(Traffic, Car Theft,

Street Racing)• Fraud and Corruption• Child Pornography and Pedophiles

ADVANTAGES OF STING OPERATIONS

• They Facilitate Investigation and Increase Arrests

• They Enhance Public Relations and Police Image

• They Enhance Police Presence• They Improve Collaboration between Police

and Prosecutors• They Provide an Impressive Conviction Record

• They May Succeed Without Convictions or Arrests

• They Often Require Partnering With Community and Business Organizations

• They Improve Community Relations by Recovering Stolen Property

DISADVANTAGES OF STING OPERATIONS

• They Do Not Reduce or Prevent Recurring Crime Problems

• They May Increase Crime• They May Be Deemed Unethical • The Government May Overreach• There are Privacy Issues

• There are Entrapment Issues• They Are Expensive• They May Prevent the Use of Other, More

Effective Problem-Solving Techniques

Yellow Journalism vs. Investigative journalism

Key points of Yellow Journalism:• scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news• lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings• use of faked interviews, misleading headlines,

pseudo-science, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts

• Emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips (which is now normal in the U.S.)

• Dramatic sympathy with the "underdog" against the system.

Key Points of Investigative Journalism

Analysis of documents, such lawsuits and other legal documents, tax records, government reports, regulatory reports and corporate financial filings.

• Investigation of technical issues, including scrutiny of equipment and its performance

• Research into social and legal issues• Subscription research sources such as LexisNexis• Numerous interviews with on-the-record sources as well as, in

some instances, interviews with anonymous sources (for example whistleblowers)

• Federal or state Freedom of Information Acts to get documents and data from government agencies.

Four myths about investigative reporting

• It’s glamorous and can be career defining to the point where it creates stars:

• Journalists can indeed be bigger than the stories they report:

• The investigative journalist is a kind of Lone Ranger:

• Investigative journalism is the preserve of the private media

THE END

THANK YOU

Bibliography

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/

• http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/print.php?content_id=46126

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harshad_Mehta• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism• http://

www.fairreporters.org/portal/fairnew/docs/IJ_Manuals/Chapter_1.pdf

• http://www.keyboardr.com/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_journalism