Investigative Reporting Exposes Corruption
A casual reader might have missed it, but as the news editor for START, a popular biweekly magazine, Eldin Karić is no casual reader. Early in 2005, a tiny news item about irregularities in audits of government agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina caught his eye. Karić suspected there was a much larger story behind the small one, and he set out to find it.
He found not one story, but eleven. Funded by a USAID grant to support research and travel, Karić led his reporting team to produce a hard-hitting series on misuse of funds by government officials. They uncovered offenses ranging from bogus claims for travel expenditures to purchase of an entire building for personal use. The series sparked public outrage and citizens began phoning in tips about other officials they suspected of misusing public funds.
Based on reader input and careful monitoring of the daily news, “I have more than 20 story ideas to follow up on,” Karić said.
The START series was among more than 340 investigative reports produced by USAID’s print, radio, and TV partners between 2004 and mid-2006. The stories not only got the public’s attention and, sometimes, sparked corrective action. A series by Banja Luka daily Nezavisne Novine on fuel adulteration prompted the government to start spot-checks at gas pumps and open a consumer hotline. Another series by the same paper on corruption in the timber industry motivated changes in the Republika Srpska’s forestry law to tighten fiscal control and oversight. “Dzepobran” (Pocket Guard), a weekly TV consumer protection series produced by a USAID partner and aired nationally, led to a crackdown on misleading grocery store advertising. It also inspired other media to investigate and expose similar instances of food adulteration or mislabeling.
Besides providing a public service, investigative reporting turned out to be a winner in the market. Nezavisne Novine produced a 150-page supplement on corruption that sold briskly, and TV consumer series “Dzepobran” topped the ratings in its time slot, motivating broadcasters to assume the full cost of producing a second season. Good reporting has become good business for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s most civic-minded independent media outlets.
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In the most egregious case of corruption exposed by START
magazine, an official purchased an entire building (shown) with misappropriated funds
Photo Credit: Chemonics/USAID Media |
Good reporting turned out to be good business for USAID’s media
partners. “Black Bosnia,” a 150-page supplement by daily Nezavisne Novine on corruption, sold briskly.
Photo Credit: Chemonics/USAID Media |
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