My blog about the movie Spotlight highlighted the gripping tale of investigative journalism that led to a sex scandal in the Catholic Church in Boston being exposed.  Investigative journalism is the kind of journalism where reporters go deep into a story and expose corruption or abuse that has not been exposed already by someone else or the Courts.  It’s very important in any society and often leads to investigations by other bodies.  In South Africa one would think of the arms commission, which seems to be going nowhere, looking into the purchase of weapons and bribes received by people and of course of Nkandla.  Investigative journalism though would also involve reporters investigating smaller local stories, such as corruption at a Court and court officials selling court dates or files.  

I think the investigative journalism in South Africa is appalling, by and large, and there is very little of it.  Only a few newspapers, often with a very limited readership like The Mail & Guardian, actually have investigative units that ever break any stories and for the most, much of what you read in the newspapers each and every day is press releases where different newspapers quote different paragraphs out of the same press release, whether issued by the Road Accident Fund or any other company. There is very little actual reporting done.  It’s amazing, when you see the media from the vantage point of a press release and see how they basically all cover it, using different paragraphs but very seldom actually looking into the story, investigating the other side.  A press release is just reprinted in the name of a journalist and that is now a story – but it’s the same document somebody at some company just typed out and sent to a whole lot of newspaper companies.