INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
These four articles appeared in the Pioneer in the section Foray
on June 10, 2001
WITHOUT
YOUR OWN RESEARCH NO TIP-OFF IS WORTH IT
Vinod Mehta
Investigative
journalism has a nice, grand ring. Its practitioners in any newspaper or
magazine office assume special airs and demand special
treatment
Their
output is seldom questioned since they are judged not by quantity, but by
quality. Marketing managers and chief executives in publishing houses who are
otherwise ignorant about journalism, speak in reverential tones when the phrase
is mentioned. It is the magic which allegedly gets newsstands moving.
I
begin on this slightly sardonic note because investigative journalism covers a
multitude of sins. The genuine article is, of course, pure as gold and should
be suitably acknowledged, but it must be noted that there is spurious stuff
knocking around too.
In
a sense, every journalist is in some way, an investigative journalist. Even the
cub reporter who compiles the listings or "daily engagements" column
from hand-outs has to verify, check and probe. If investigation means going
beyond what is handed-out or distributed, we are all in the game.
I
first chanced upon investigative journalism in the early `60s. Then a gentleman
called Harold Evans, now lost, alas, to the glitterati pages, edited The Sunday
Times, London. He, (I may be wrong) I believe, is the father of magazine/Sunday
paper investigative journalism. Evans coined the word "insight" and
constituted a special insight team of four or five reporters (more hands were
acquired, if necessary). It was the job of this team to produce, on a weekly
basis, reports which would appear under the heading insight. It was the core
around which the Sunday paper was built.
My
friend, the award-winning journalist Phillip Knightley, was a key member of the
Insight team which produced memorable exposes. Their length could vary from
2,000 to 4,000 words and there was a special page reserved for Insight. When I
launched The Sunday Observer in 1981, I shamelessly copied the Evan formula and
for eight years each week, we produced full-page investigations. Perhaps, the
first organised attempt in this country to provide investigative
journalism on a regular basis. Since then investigative journalism has come a
long way. By and large, its record in India is distinguished. It has fallen
only when it has been manipulated to "get" certain individuals, by
governments out to discredit rivals. The attempt to frame VP Singh and his son
in the St Kitts case comes to mind.
Investigative journalism is co