Watchdog Conference

After two days of conversation on tackling threats to watchdog journalists worldwide and fostering the kind of innovation necessary to sustain investigative reporting, conference participants met in break-out sessions to identify next steps.

Toward the goal of countering legal threats to investigative journalists, participants put forward the following four recommendations:

• Create an online portal for journalists’ rights. This would be geared in particular toward providing a resource for online and new media journalists to find information about their rights in various countries and in various situations.
• Establish a task force on the issue of media insurance. Given the difficulty of new media companies and those in countries where journalism is still developing to get insurance, look for creative vehicles for providing libel and liability insurance to allow reporters to pursue their work robustly.
• Develop an organized approach to providing pro bono legal support for investigative journalists worldwide.
• Begin a global conversation on the abuse of privacy laws as a legal threat to the work of investigative journalists. This is an emerging problem in the U.S., where the Privacy Act is being used against journalists, and in other countries where privacy laws are becoming vehicles for suppression, censorship and even jailing of journalists.

With regard to addressing the physical and psychological threats to investigative journalists, participants made the following recommendations.

• Develop studies and training geared to the specific ways that investigative journalists are targeted and attacked. Much of the existing training for journalists is geared toward combat situations, and does not reflect the reality of how journalists are targeted. Study and evaluate incidents of attack, and draw out training specific to situations investigative journalists may encounter.
• Create an advocacy group made up of investigative journalists to engage with threats faced by colleagues around the world. This group would foster a culture of citizen activism among journalists in support of colleagues.

In the areas of creating new cross-border collaborations and funding models for investigative journalists, participants made the following recommendations:

• Foster experimentation in finding new and sustainable funding models and revenue streams for investigative journalism. Foundations cannot be the primary support for investigative journalism. The focus should be on creating new business models-perhaps with the participation of business schools-and expanding the pool of potential funders, whether through wealthy individual donors, foundations, or online contributors.
• Help people who are starting new investigative journalism organizations tap the resources that already exist by building a resource center or a toolkit, online or in print. For those starting new non-profit and for-profit media organizations, encourage them to make use of others’ past experience, and share knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.
• Create a consulting group for those who are interested in forming new investigative news centers. Consultants could help provide business expertise, or evaluate the business plans of journalists and others who are forging new organizations. A consulting group could provide expertise not only in how to build non-profit or for-profit centers, but also in the area of technological expertise, for example in initiatives like micro-financing.
• Organize efforts to help funders understand why fostering investigative journalism is important, given the increasingly crucial role of the press.
• Educate the public about why paying for content is important, even if it is a small amount.
• Understand the audiences of investigative journalism organizations, and work with them in order to maximize the impact of watchdogging.
• Join discussions with Google and other major aggregators on the importance of revenue for the sources of content, like newspapers.

By Lauren McSherry

Moderator: Brant Houston, Knight Chair for Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois
Mark Katches, investigative editor, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (winner, AP Award for Innovations in Investigative Reporting)
Brian Lehrer, WNYC Radio: Public radio as a home for investigative reporting; “crowd-sourcing” and other techniques
Daoud Kuttab, Chairman of ARIJ (Arab reporters for Investigative Journalism) and Founder of AmmanNet: Finding space for investigative journalism in the Arab world
Weiqiang Ye, Assistant Managing Editor, Caijing: Muckraking in China amid Communist Party restrictions

Editors and journalists said they have turned to the Internet and crowd-sourcing as new platforms for investigative reporting during a panel discussion Friday afternoon.

Mark Katches, investigative editor for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, cited a variety of techniques for sharing investigative stories on the Web and gathering tips for potential stories from the public.

The paper’s Public Investigator team blogs relentlessly and, on average, publishes one story a week in the paper, he said. The team also collects tips on its blog, which it then pursues.

Katches gave an example of crowd sourcing whereby the paper requested the city’s database of complaints, mapped them, and found a great disparity regarding where potholes were getting repaired. The paper found that white neighborhoods were getting their potholes filled quicker. In addition to an article on the issue, the investigative team also launched an interactive map where readers can upload their pothole complaints.

Katches pointed out that his watchdog team - one of the biggest in the nation - represents just five percent of the newsroom staff, which is comprised of 200 people. His team works on a mix of “quick hits” and months-long investigations - a combination that has paid off with a number of national journalism awards in recent years.

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By Hilke Schellmann

Moderator: Betsy West, associate professor, Columbia Journalism School
Alex Gibney, independent documentary film-maker: Financing and marketing investigative documentaries
Andrew Golis, deputy publisher, Talking Points Memo
Andrew Donohue, executive editor, VoiceofSanDiego.org
Bob Moser, investigative editor, Texas Observer
Brant Houston, Knight Chair for Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois

Five panelists from print, documentary and online investigative outlets shared their insights Friday morning for developing innovative funding models for investigative reporting.

The Voice of San Diego, a four-year-old, investigative online news Web site covering the San Diego area, is a nonprofit and relies on large individual donors, grants from philanthropic organizations and reader pledge drives, said Andrew Donohue, the Web site’s executive editor.

The nonprofit news organization also relies on a growing stream of online ads. Although tax-exempt, it is required to pay taxes on the ad revenues, Donohue said. He also mentioned that the organization is incredibly efficient. “We spend $9,000 every year on production costs,“ he said.

The Voice of San Diego operates on a $1-million budget and has 13 staff members – 10 of them reporters, Donohue said.

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by Kristin Jones

Moderator: Stewart Chisholm, senior program manager, Network Media Program, OSF
Michael Sullivan, partner, Levine, Sullivan, Koch
Stuart Karle, former general counsel, Dow Jones
Peter Noorlander, legal director, Media Legal Defence Initiative
Toby Mendel, Law Program director, ARTICLE 19

International differences in media law provide both risks to journalists in the U.S and elsewhere, and opportunities to share best practices, said panelists in this morning’s discussion on innovations in providing legal protection to investigative journalists.

Libel cases remain one of the primary ways for circumscribing journalists’ expression, panelists said. Stuart Karle, a media defense attorney who has represented Dow Jones and other news organizations against claims of libel, spoke about libel tourism, in which plaintiffs travel to England or other places to find a favorable venue for their claims. The U.K. system puts the burden of proof on media defendants to prove that their reporting is true, making it an attractive place for plaintiffs to lodge cases against journalists. Read the rest of this entry »

A presentation by Ying Chan, Founding Director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong

Posted by Kristin Jones

Veteran investigative journalist and Chinese media expert Ying Chan led an audience of mainly American investigative journalists through some of China’s best watchdog journalism of the last decade.

The last few years have been a pioneering era in Chinese investigative journalism, she said. Chinese journalists have found material in the same topics that captivate watchdog reporters worldwide; corruption, abuse by police and government officials, as well as environmental and education issues. China’s muckrakers persist despite legal obstacles and threats to reporters in the form of ownership and licensing restrictions, administrative penalties, arrests, physical violence, a litany of banned topics, and corruption within the media itself, she said.

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