Investigative Journalism for Transparency: Germany helps Ukrainian media increase their efficiency

What’s the relevance of present day journalistic investigations in Ukraine? They are probably as relevant as civic responsibility, consciousness and activism. For the time being, there are a lot of quite timely topics in terms of civil and journalistic investigations in Ukraine. There are immense amount of issue areas that concern every single aspect, ranging from the effect of armed conflict to the life of communities in small towns. There are projects aimed at supporting both investigators-beginners and experienced colleagues. The "Investigative Journalism for Transparency" project started in August of this year. It is implemented by non-governmental organization "Regional Union of Youth" (RUNY) in a partnership with German organization "Media in Cooperation and Transition" with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office. The target group are certified journalists, representatives of the new-media and bloggers, senior students at journalism faculties, and civic activists.

In his interview, the Head of RUNY Mykhailo Gryshyn, together with the trainers Oleksandr Kurbatov and Yulia Zaltsberh, spoke about the project's execution stages and evaluated its effectiveness.

The project included a series of events in Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv, designed to provide the participants with new knowledge and enhancing professional skills, and also exercising and fostering them on practice.

Amongst others, there were training courses for investigators-beginners – a series of trainings, either of which consisted of two three-day parts and a homework. The target group is journalists with little work experience, including new-media and bloggers, senior students at journalism faculties, and civic activists. After the first parts, participants practiced their skills, conducted investigations on important issues in their hometowns. Later, their works were analysed in conjunction with the trainers and other participants.

Besides, a three-day training was held to investigate the sources of politicians' funding. The events were designed for already experienced investigative journalists who got modern tools for analysing and monitoring the financial sources of political parties and independent candidates. The tools are to be used for covering the 2019-20 parliamentary and local elections to inform voters about the origin of campaign funds. Participants in these activities also create and publish their investigations. The topics of the investigations are chosen by the participants themselves.

Speaking about the significance of the project and its impact on the quality of journalistic work, Yulia Zaltserh noted that the work of Ukrainian journalists is significantly complicated by the armed conflict that has been going on in Eastern Ukraine for more than five years.

"Unfortunately, the armed conflict in Donbass has had a negative impact on the work of Ukrainian journalists dealing with political finances investigations, since it complicated the collection of information about parties’ and candidates’ donors from uncontrolled territories. Today, it’s actually pretty much a loophole for them to hide the origin of their contributions", Yulia pointed out.

The trainers also added that the project "Investigative Journalism for Transparency" significantly improves the quality of the performance of media that practice this format of work.

"High-quality journalistic investigations play an important role in further development of the State and in strengthening the democratic system in Ukraine. Therefore, projects like this, where participants gain knowledge and skills through their practical application, are extremely useful. In my opinion, this project helped journalists and activists who wanted to try their hand at investigative journalism to acquire the necessary theoretical and practical skills and competencies. For more experienced journalists who are no strangers in investigative journalism, this courses provided an opportunity to get practical advice on how to improve their investigations; introduced new useful techniques and tools that they can make use of in their work; gave the opportunity to practically work with sources of information and try different practical research methods," Yulia Zaltsberh said.

According to Oleksandr Kurbatov, the project gives journalists the opportunity not only to gain knowledge and skills, but also to apply them in practice.

"The project’s value is that it teaches journalists and activists to think critically, and also to apply this kind of thinking. The more people have the skills to check the words of politicians and officials, the harder it is to manipulate public opinion. People who attended our trainings know where to find and how to check financial statements of the politicians. They have learned how to verify the utilization of budgetary resources, including at the local community level, and how to use this information to reach the community. This knowledge is universal, no matter where participants of the trainings live, in Western or Eastern Ukraine," the trainer emphasized.

According to Mykhailo Gryshyn, Head of the "Regional Union of Youth", this was not the organization's first investigative journalism project.

"The high demand for training on journalistic investigations is evidenced by the results of a similar project, implemented last year also with the support of our German partners. The effectiveness of the "Investigative Journalism – the Arrowhead of Transparency", which operated in 2018, speaks to the interest in the project: we received hundreds of applications for participation in trainings, and the project’s post-performance are 52 investigative media materials, created by the participants. The best investigations were awarded," the Head of RUNY says.

According to him, the purpose of the 2019 project was to provide a comprehensive educational campaign on standards and ethics in investigative journalism for Ukrainian media and civic activists with the emphasis on advanced techniques using the best European methodologies.

"There is a huge demand for such projects in Ukraine, as there are plenty of topics for journalistic investigations. Our goal, as well as the goal of our partners, is to provide project participants with the tools and skills, necessary to work in this complex undertaking. In general, investigative journalism is quite a broad subject, the significance of which could be discussed at length. However, to put it succinctly, the main goal of the project is conducting a comprehensive educational campaign on journalistic investigative standards for Ukrainian media and civic activists with an emphasis on best methodologies", Mykhailo Gryshyn stressed out.

The project participants who created the best media materials will enjoy certain advantages.

"As in the previous year, two competitions are to be held to encourage the best publications and to stimulate commitment of the participants in making investigations, to encourage their even more efficient work. This work is going to be evaluated by an independent jury consisting of well-known Ukrainian journalists and editors. The winners will receive valuable prizes. The project will end with a final conference for the top 20 participants; this event will be based on the Open Space concept. Participants will be able to share their achievements, professional experience, discuss problems and define objectives for future work in the area of investigations. We hope that the results of the 2019 project will please both us and the participants of our training courses no less than the results of last year's "Investigative Journalism – the Arrowhead of Transparency", Mykhailo Gryshyn concluded.

Reference

The trainers who shared their experience with the project participants were Oleksandr Kurbatov, an investigative journalist with 24 years of experience, who cooperates with independent investigative projects "Slidstvo.Info" and "Our Money" produced by BIHUS.INFO; laureate of "Honor of Profession" and "Mezhyhirya Fest" Journalism Contests; and Yulia Zaltsberh, IFES Ukraine trainer, political finance and electoral process expert, ex-employee of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, trainer of anti-corruption schools for investigative journalists and activists, anti-corruption analyst.

Author: Marina Kuraptseva