The first part of the second training course on investigative journalism was held in Dnipro

Vice-Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany Mr. Peter Schmal opened the first part of the second training course "Technologies of investigative journalism" in Dnipro with the welcome speech. He especially noted:

"An important component of our cooperation with Ukrainian civil society is the fourth power, i.e. the Media. The fourth power in Ukraine today suffers from the same thing as other branches of government - corruption. The difficulty is that corrupted journalists are punished differently from officials, People’s Deputies, judges or prosecutors. Journalists deal with ethics. Those who want to mostly serve the interests of oligarchs and politicians will feel better in propaganda classes. Our media projects are aimed at experienced journalists, novice journalists and those who want to work in independent media. Therefore, this training is central to those journalists who seek to discover and convey the truth."

One of the important topics of this training - the illegal enrichment in penitentiary institutions. The most common types of bribe - three, five, eight thousand dollars - for early release for health reasons. Amounts are small, but regular.

Among other things, the topic of illegal export of humanitarian aid was discussed. This is quite an important topic - especially for Lviv, Volyn regions and frontline territories.

"What’s important is that all orders concerning a humanitarian aid coming from abroad are published on the website of the Ministry of Social Policy. They are published in the form of scans-copies, not in the form of a data table. It is difficult to use this information, but it exists. I used to find directors of organizations who could not remember what documents they had signed. As a rule, those directors and organizations are fake", Yevheniia Motorevska noted.

"There are two basic problems with humanitarian aid:

✔ tax evasion
✔ embezzlement of donor funds.

Analyse the orders of the Ministry of Social Policy. Watch what has been imported into your regions. It happens that the phone number listed as a "charity organization" coincides with the phone number of people who sell second-hand."

The training was organized within the "Investigative Journalism – the Arrowhead of Transparency" project in cooperation with a German organization "Europäische Medien Initiative e.V." using the German Federal Foreign Office resources.