Investigative Journalism

Every day, ‘ordinary’, journalism is simple telling the news and is determined by the public agenda, such as court cases, or the forthcoming Olympics. Whereas investigative journalism is where the journalist goes ‘off diary’ and decides the agenda for themselves. It often concerns a topic which someone, somewhere, doesn’t want you to know or publish. The subject can either be lightweight, such as celebrity gossip, or it can be more hard-hitting such as fraud. Classic ‘investigations’ are on public interest issues. The defence of ‘public interest’ applies to: crime, public safety and hypocrisy. However the big topics, which will make newspapers fly off the shelves, are miscarriages of justice.

Miscarriages of justice are where people are framed and convicted of a crime they did not commit, for example the cases of the Birmingham Six, and the Gilford Four. The Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) was set up, after these two high profile miscarriages, to investigate alleged cases of miscarriages of justice, however it is unfortunately seen as ineffective. It is very difficult to prove that the judicial system isn’t fair, or isn’t drawing the correct conclusions. As well as the CCRC there is also the Innocence Project (INUK) which gives offenders the opportunity to apply for their case to be considered as a possible miscarriage of justice.

When conducting investigative journalism it is important, as always, to avoid malice and there must not be any conflicts of interest.  A famous example of investigative journalism at its very best was by Harry Evans and the Insight Team into the use of Thalidomide (intended to solve morning sickness) and the affect it had on the development of a child in the womb. This resulted in compensation being rewarded to the victims’ families.   

Some handy and interesting links for you:
http://www.ccrc.gov.uk/
http://www.innocencenetwork.org.uk/