Investigative Journalism: The MI5 of Journalists (without the insane murders)

Investigative journalism is defined as a story where the information is obtained by a reporter, collected through months of planning and investigation about a single topic. The journalists goes to the news, the news never goes to the journalist.

Harry Evans, the former editor of The Sunday Times gathered a famous team comprising of some of the best journalists in the country and formed what is now known as, The Sunday Times insight team. The insight team would solely look at investigative stories, which in my opinion I think is the hardest form of journalism, as you have to find the story that relates to the public interest. I would think though that some of the stories that the insight team reported on are some of the most memorable and respected pieces of journalism in recent memory.

One of the most famous stories reported by the insight was the Thalidomide scandal. Thalidomide was introduced as a sedative drug for pregnant women in the late 1950's. The drug was sold in circulation from 1957 until 1961 when the drug was withdrawn due to the revelations that it caused birth defects in children. 

It was not until The Sunday Times exposed the true extent of the damage that had left 100,000 unborn babies dead in the womb and a further 10,000 were born with some form of disability. The Stillian, the British distributor of Thalidomide rejected the initial claims that their drug had cause these birth defects, this was until the revelations revealed by The Sunday Times who has received a document from an inside source revealing the true extent of the drug's problems. This would cause The Stillians to drop the libel case against The Sunday Times and proved a success for the Insight team as the story was in the public interest. 

Another famous investigative news team was the ITV investigative program, World in Action. World in Action would break the mould for current affairs on television and would take calculated risks to ensure that they got the story they needed to report, in order to have a major impact on the new events of the day. There are many famous examples of the work World in Action accomplished, but one of the main stories was brought up by Chris Horrie who was working for World in Action during the time of the Manchester meat fiasco. 

The Edwards family were the sole owners of Manchester United from the early 1960's until the purchase by The Glazer Family in 2005. In 1980 World in Action investigated into the Edwards meat packing company, who were responsible for many of the local school food contracts in and around the Greater Manchester area. They claimed that they had evidence that showed that the meat that had been supplied to the local primary schools in Rochdale was tainted and unfit for human consumption. They also found that The Edwards family had been bribing the local school officials in Greater Manchester in order to obtain the contract for school dinners in the local surrounding areas.

The program was broadcasted on 28th January 1980. Four weeks later Louis Edwards died of a massive heart attack. It is unknown if the stress brought upon by the broadcast contributed to the death of Edwards, however it left the director Paul Greengrass labelled with the infamous nickname "Killer Greengrass". Paul Greengrass career would not be affected though as he would go on to produce some of the most critically acclaimed films in the last 10 years, most notably United 93. It seems that he always has to be involved in something United, Don't you think?

World in Action most famous story is the case involving The Birmingham Six. On 21st November 1974 two pubs in Birmingham: The Mulberry Bush and The Tavern in the town was both bomb by IRA activists. The two bombs results in a total of 21 deaths and 162 others were injured. Initially six Irish people, living in and around the Birmingham area were arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy to cause explosions All were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. This led to the investigation by World in Action in 1986 where they felt that the men had been framed, as they were known criminals in the area, but only for low-level crimes.

After two unsuccessful appeal attempts, in 1991 the Birmingham six was cleared of all charges due to new evidence of police fabrication and suppression of evidence. There are member of the World in Action who to this day known members of the IRA and had a good idea of who had was responsible for the bombings, these claims though have never been proven or released.

This video shows the innocence of the Birmingham Six through the eyes of Irish folk band The Pogues who wrote a song expression their distain for the situation.

One way you can find out information though is through subterfuge. It is very important for investigative journalists as they can use gather secret information through hidden cameras in a technique known as a "camera in a bag job". The only key constraint is that you have to ensure that all the information you obtain is legit, accurate and is in the public interest (it always seems to creep up). One thing you most never do is something called trawling. This is when you leave a hidden camera behind with the aspect of catching someone off guard in order to obtain the truth. So it is safe to say never go to a job interview and decide to leave your bag behind if there is a camera inside. 

Now Investigative Journalism used to stand for pride and was respected by the journalistic community, This was until one man came in and decided to turn investigation journalism into a dirty word and his name is Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch since he took control of The Sun and The News of the World has turned investigative journalism into pure scandal, using questionable tactics in order to obtain the right story. 

There are two key stories I will use as examples for this the first is involving the former multiple time Snooker world champion, John Higgins. In May 2010, The News of the World ran a story trying to expose Higgins and his manager Pat Mooney of trying to bring the game of Snooker into disrepute by accepting bribes from alleged Ukrainian businessmen to influence the decision of matches. The sting was infact two News of the World journalists posing as the Ukrainian businessmen, who were offering Higgins and Mooney 300,000 Euros to throw four frames in four separate tournaments.

They had been serious doubts cast about the reliability and accuracy of the story. John Higgins was charged with match fixing, but was found not guilty on 8th September 2010. However he was charged with bringing the game of Snooker into disrepute by not informing the approach made by The News of the World. He was banned from the game for six months and is due to play his first tournament next week. 

The other case involved the infamous News of the World spoof, "The Fake Sheikh". Mazher Mahmood  has been used constantly by The News of the World posing as the fake sheikh trying to expose celebrities and criminals by gaining their trust and then exposing them. One of the most famous stories involving the fake shiekh was with the former Labour MP and political activist, George Galloway. On 20th March 2006 Galloway claimed that Mahmood and a accomplice had sought out to expose Galloway not only as being involved in illegal political funding, but also as having expressed anti-semitic views, including the denial of the Holocaust. 

George Galloway was infamous for having constant meetings with former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussian and was throughout his political career was opposed to any form of war, most notably the Gulf War in 1991. The Daily Telegraph also tried to expose Galloway as an Arabic sympathiser and they were claming to of obtaining documents after the death of Saddam Hussain in 2005 that exposed Galloway as a potential traitor and spy.

These two stories are just two of the many stories that The News of the World and the Murdoch empire have tried to create in order to entertain the public through scandal and corruption. They have given investigative journalism a dirty name and will try to produce a story, even if it means having to lie. There is one man, who if he were alive today would be disgusted and ashamed by the means that journalists take to find a story and his name is Emile Zola. 

Emile Zola (1840-1902) is seen by many as the founder father of investigative journalism. After the French defeat to the Prussian (German) army in 1870, the French army were trying to find someone to blame and started to blame French-Jewish soldiers. They were  accused of selling French army military secrets to the Prussian army. Captain Alfred Dreyfus was accused of being the ringleader of the group. He was found guilty in a show trial and was sentenced to life on Devil's Island in French Guiana and placed in solitary confinement. 

Emile Zola believed that the French army had framed Dreyfus, however after being trialed and found guilty for criminal libel, Zola was exiled to live the rest of his life in Surrey. The trial was brought about due to the letter  Zola published, which possibly  is the most famous piece of investigative journalism in history.

J'accuse was an open letter written by Zola in the French newspaper L'Aurore. The letter was directed at the French premier, Felix Faure, accusing the French of the unlawful and wrong imprisonment of Dreyfus and brought upon the famous quote: "We name the guilty men". This was supported by the first usage of photojournalism, exposing the corruption of the French army.

Even though it would take 15 years after Emile Zola's death for Alfred Dreyfus to be exonerated, it proved that the famous words of Zola laided down the foundations for the careers and success of all investigative journalists, up to this very day. 

However when it comes to investigative journalism, there is one serious legal implication that can affect the standard needed to defend an investigative report, the evidence gap. In criminal law the evidence gap is harder to prove as the defendant has to be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt. This is not the same in civil court cases where they only requires lower levels of proof and can be  determined by the balance of probability. 

One of the most famous cases involving the evidence gap is the case of the Omagh bombings in August 1998. The bombings left 29 dead and over 220 people were injured in the worst terrorist act ever to take place in the turbulent history of Northern Ireland. There were claims that the police knew who were responsible for the bombings, but they did not have enough substantial proof to charge anyone with the bombings. It also would of been hard to select a jury due to the strong support for the IRA throughout Ireland during the late 20th century. 

The police in Omagh decided to go the BBC Panorama program in order to try and help establish who was truly involved in the bombings and to bring the people responsible to justice. Panorama revealed the information they had behind who could potentially be responsible for the bombings. However the broadcast would backfire as the IRA retaliated by trying to bomb BBC television centre on 4th March 2001.

Up to this day no one has owned up or has been convicted of the Omagh bombings and I personally think that the evidence gap is so huge in this case that the likelihood of anyone ever being convicted of the crime is very slim to say the least. It proves that even when it comes to investigative journalism, there are constraints that journalists may have to face
 

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