Investigative journalism

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

Praise for the first edition:

‘A surprising book. I’m surprised that it hasn’t been done before, and

I’d also be surprised if anyone did it better.’

Roger Cook, The Cook Report, Central Television

‘a book that no aspiring student of the subject can do without’

Jon Snow, Channel 4 News

Investigative journalism has helped bring down governments, imprison politi￾cians, trigger legislation, reveal miscarriages of justice and shame corporations.

Even today, when much of the media colludes with power and when vicious￾ness and sensationalism are staples of formerly high-minded media, investigative

journalists can stand up for the powerless, the exploited, the truth.

Investigative Journalism provides an unrivalled introduction to this vital part of

our social life: its origins, the men and women who established its norms and its

achievements in the last decades. Two chapters describe the relationships with

the law, bringing us up to date, and others deal with the professional techniques,

the sociology and the teaching of investigative journalism. A further new chapter

examines the influence of the blogosphere on investigative journalism.

The case studies of the first edition have been supplemented by new chapters:

the investigators and methods which revealed the subcontracting of the torture

of Iraqi prisoners; how the murder of Stephen Lawrence was treated in the

Daily Mail; the tabloids and their investigations; BBC Panorama.

Contributors: Paul Bradshaw, Michael Bromley, Mark D’Arcy, Hugo de

Burgh, Ivor Gaber, Roy Greenslade, Mark Hanna, Chris Horrie, Paul Lashmar,

Gavin MacFadyen.

Hugo de Burgh is Professor of Journalism at the University of Westminster,

London and Special Professor of Investigative Journalism at Tsinghua University,

China.

First published 2000

Reprinted 2001

This edition published 2008

by Routledge

2 Park Square,Milton Park,Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2000, 2008 Hugo de Burgh for editorial matter, his chapters,

and selection

© 2000, 2008 contributors for individual chapters

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,

mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter

invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any

information storage or retrieval system, without permission in

writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Investigative journalism / [edited by] Hugo de Burgh.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Investigative reporting. I. Burgh,Hugo de, 1949–

PN4781.157 2008

070.4
3—dc22

2007049634

ISBN10: 0–415–44143–9 (hbk)

ISBN10: 0–415–44144–7 (pbk)

ISBN10: 0–203–89567–3 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978–0–415–44143–8 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978–0–415–44144–5 (pbk)

ISBN13: 978–0–203–89567–2 (ebk)

“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s

collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.

ISBN 0-203-89567-3 Master e-book ISBN

INVESTIGATIVE

JOURNALISM

Second Edition

Hugo de Burgh

with Paul Bradshaw, Michael Bromley,

Mark D’Arcy, Ivor Gaber,

Roy Greenslade, Mark Hanna,

Chris Horrie, Paul Lashmar,

Gavin MacFadyen

CONTENTS

Notes on contributors viii

Acknowledgements xi

PART I

Context 1

1 Introduction 3

HUGO DE BURGH

Contacts: contact details of some organisations,

sites and publications useful to investigative journalists 23

STEVEN McINTOSH

2 The emergence of investigative journalism 32

HUGO DE BURGH

3 Forty years: a tradition of investigative journalism 54

HUGO DE BURGH

4 The Blair years: mediocracy and investigative journalism 70

HUGO DE BURGH

5 Investigative journalism and blogs 96

PAUL BRADSHAW

6 Investigative journalism and English law 114

CHRIS HORRIE

7 The English Freedom of Information Act 130

CHRIS HORRIE

v

8 The practices of investigative journalism 138

GAVIN MacFADYEN

9 Universities as evangelists of the watchdog role: teaching

investigative journalism to undergraduates 157

MARK HANNA

10 Investigative journalism and scholarship 174

MICHAEL BROMLEY

PART II

Cases 189

11 From shadow boxing to Ghost Plane: English journalism

and the War on Terror 191

PAUL LASHMAR

12 High politics and low behaviour: Sunday Times Insight 215

HUGO DE BURGH

13 Investigating corporate corruption: an example from

BBC’s File on Four 229

HUGO DE BURGH

14 Panorama – investigative TV? 243

IVOR GABER

15 Scrutinising social policy: an example from Channel 4’s

Dispatches 256

HUGO DE BURGH

16 Journalism with attitude: the Daily Mail 272

HUGO DE BURGH

17 Exposing miscarriages of justice: an example from

BBC’s Rough Justice 289

HUGO DE BURGH

18 Local power and public accountability: an example from

the East Midlands 300

MARK D’ARCY

vi

CONTENTS

19 Subterfuge, set-ups, stings and stunts: how red-tops

go about their investigations 319

ROY GREENSLADE

20 Pillaging the environmentalists: The Cook Report 340

HUGO DE BURGH

21 Grave-digging: the case of ‘the Cossacks’ 358

HUGO DE BURGH

22 Interfering with foreigners: An example from First Tuesday 371

HUGO DE BURGH

Index 385

vii

CONTENTS

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Paul Bradshaw is a Senior Lecturer in Online Journalism and Magazines and

New Media at Birmingham City University. His professional background

includes editing consumer magazines, managing news and feature-based

websites, and freelance work as a journalist and print and web designer. His

writing on online journalism has appeared in Press Gazette, Journalism

.co.uk, Poynter Online and Telegraph.co.uk. He was recently named on of

the UK’s ‘most influential journalism bloggers’ and his ‘Online Journalism

Blog’ attracts tens of thousands of visitors every month. He has contributed

to a number of books about the internet and journalism.

Michael Bromley is Professor of Journalism and head of the School of

Journalism and Communication at The University of Queensland, Australia.

A former daily newspaper journalist, he has taught at a number of uni￾versities in the UK, USA and Australia. He has published widely on journal￾ism and the media, and was a founding editor of the journal Journalism:

Theory, Practice and Criticism. He is co-editor of A Journalism Reader

(Routledge 1997) and Journalism and Democracy in Asia (Routledge 2005).

Mark D’Arcy is a Parliamentary Correspondent with BBC News, he is one

of the presenters for Today in Parliament, an occasional presenter for The

Westminster Hour and the presenter of BBC Parliament’s BOOKtalk. He is a

former BBC Local Government Correspondent in the East Midlands and

Political Correspondent for the Leicester Mercury. He is the co-author of

Nightmare! The Race to Become London’s Mayor (Politico’s 2000), co-author of

Abuse of Trust, Frank Beck and the Leicestershire Child Abuse Scandal (Bower￾dean 1998) and most recently, Order! Order! Fifty Years of Today in Parliament

(Politico’s 2005).

Hugo de Burgh is Professor of Journalism at the University of Westminster

and Director of the China Media Centre. In 2007 he taught Investigative

Journalism at Tsinghua University under the Chinese Ministry of Education’s

International Leading Scholar Programme. His books include Investigative

Journalism (Routledge 2000), The Chinese Journalist (Routledge 2003),

viii

Making Journalists (Routledge 2005), China: Friend or Foe? (Icon 2007) and

The China Impact (McKinsey & Co. 2007). He is Co-editor of Can the Prizes

still Glitter? The future of British universities in a changing world (University of

Buckingham Press 2007) and Chairman of AGORA, the higher education

think-tank.

Ivor Gaber is a broadcaster, researcher and consultant. As an independent

producer he makes programmes for Radio 4 and the World Service. He is

Research Professor in Media and Politics at the University of Bedfordshire

and Emeritus Professor of Broadcast Journalism at London University’s

Goldsmiths College. He has authored three books and numerous articles on

political communications and served as a media and politics consultant to

governments and international bodies. He has held senior editorial positions

at the BBC, ITN, Channel Four and Sky News. He has just helped set up

Uganda’s first national news agency. He is Deputy Chair of the Communi￾cations Section of the UK UNESCO National Commission and is on the

organising committee for World Press Freedom Day.

Roy Greenslade is Professor of Journalism at London’s City University, writes

a media column for the Evening Standard and runs a blog on the Guardian

media website. He has been a journalist for 42 years and has worked for most

of Britain’s national newspapers, notably as assistant editor of the Sun, man￾aging editor of the Sunday Times and editor of the Daily Mirror, 1990–91. He

is on the board of the academic quarterly, the British Journalism Review, and is

a trustee of the media ethics charity, MediaWise. He is the author of three

books, including a biography of the late press tycoon, Robert Maxwell and

a history of British newspapers entitled Press Gang: How Newspapers Make

Profits From Propaganda (Pan Books 2004).

Mark Hanna is a lecturer in the Department of Journalism Studies at the

University of Sheffield. He worked for 18 years on newspapers, including the

Western Daily Press, Sheffield Morning Telegraph and Sheffield Star, specialising in

crime reporting and investigations, and also for the Observer as northern

reporter. He won awards, including Provincial Journalist of the Year in the

British Press Awards. He is a co-author of Key Concepts in Journalism Studies

(Sage 2005). He chairs the media law examinations board of the National

Council for the Training of Journalists, and is an official of the Association

for Journalism Education.

Chris Horrie is a lecturer, author and journalist, and a former staff reporter,

writer and editor for News on Sunday, The Sunday Correspondent, the Sunday

Times Magazine and BBC News Online and, in addition, diarist for the

Independent on Sunday and the Observer business and media sections. He is a

contributor to numerous TV and radio discussion programmes and a fre￾quent radio commentator and broadcaster. He is the author or co-author of

ten books, mostly about the media and popular culture. He leads journalism

ix

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

courses at the University of Winchester and specialises in teaching and

researching media law, media history, journalism practice, multimedia jour￾nalism production and related subjects.

Paul Lashmar is an investigative journalist, TV producer, author and lecturer.

He covers the war on terror for the Independent on Sunday. Since entering

journalism in 1978 he has been on the staff of the Observer (1978–89), Granada

TV’s World in Action current affairs series (1989–92) and the Independent

(1998–2001). Since 2001 he has been a part-time lecturer in postgraduate

journalism at University College Falmouth where he set up the successful

MA in Investigative Journalism. He is also a part-time lecturer at Solent

University.

Gavin MacFadyen is Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism at

City University in London and has directed the annual Summer Schools in

London and training programmes in South Africa, Serbia, Norway and

Columbia University since 2003. A London Film School graduate, he first

joined BBC New York to work on 24 Hours and Panorama. In the UK he was

a Director of the BBC Money Programme and of Granada Television’s World

In Action where he worked on 30 investigative documentaries. He has

researched eleven feature films for Paramount, the Michael Mann Company

and Lucas Films and directed the BBC investigation into DeBeers, The

Diamond Empire which was the subject of major litigation. He has directed

and produced investigative programmes for C4 Dispatches, ITV, Australian

Television and PBS Frontline.

x

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is dedicated to

David Lloyd

Creator of C4 Dispatches and Head of Current Affairs at C4 Television (1987–

2003) in appreciation of his remarkable contribution to journalism and to

public life.

Thanks are due, and willingly rendered, to those who helped with the first

edition, and whose words are used again here. For their more recent thoughts

and advice I thank Andy Bell, Robin Esser, Paul Kenyon, Philip Knightley, Alja

Kranjec, Professor Li Xiguang, Donal McIntryre, Julian O’Halloran, Kevin

Sutcliffe, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, Xiao Lili, Teaching Assistant, and my students

at Tsinghua, Xin Xin and Zeng Rong (translating the book into Chinese).

Research was undertaken by Katie Byrne, Steven McIntosh, Mandy Garner

and Lam Laihan.

xi

Part I

CONTEXT

1

INTRODUCTION

Hugo de Burgh

In the first edition of this book there was enthusiasm about investigative jour￾nalism: as a distinct genre of journalism; as a vital means of accountability,

almost the fourth estate itself; as the first rough draft of legislation. Then, it was

widely thought that investigative journalism was a valuable public service

endangered by new technology and crass management. Now, when every

medium trumpets its work as investigative journalism, it is often written off as

just another squalid trick up the sleeves of money-grubbing media moguls.

Fashions change.

Although I do not buy the characterisation of the media as the enemy of all

decent society, a debate which I introduce in Chapter 4, I am less confident of

the idealism expressed in the first edition. In the United Kingdom we have

lived through ten years of an experiment in government by spin, in which wars

have been waged, the constitution subverted, public services distorted and civil

servants corrupted in the cause of feeding the media in the hope that they can

thus be diverted from attacking politicians. The techniques of investigative

journalism, it is now more clearly seen, can be put to partisan, commercial or

corrupt use as much as to right wrongs or overcome evil. That this happens in

many different countries today was becoming evident to me as I assembled

the international essays that went into Making Journalists: Diverse Models, Global

Issues (Routledge, 2005).

Nevertheless investigative journalism still has the potential to make a worth￾while contribution to society, as the recent examples cited in the pages below

show us. It does so by drawing attention to failures within society’s systems

of regulation and to the ways in which those systems can be circumvented by

the rich, the powerful and the corrupt.

The motives may be various, the limitations obvious, yet the tasks still need

to be done. And how and why they are done is increasingly discussed and

studied in universities and colleges all over the world, where the first edition of

this book, translated into many languages, has for eight years provided the

only available introduction to the phenomenon in Britain. This second edition

keeps many of the previous case studies but replaces all of the original part 1,

except for the history chapters (2 and 3). The examples are still relevant,

3