Investigative journalism network creates sense of shared purpose

The conditions under which to practice investigative journalism differ across the world, but in many countries it remains a dangerous and risky practice. There was a sense of shared purpose amongst the hundreds of journalists attending the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Rio this week

“It is important to know that you are not alone out there, that we stand together as a team,” says Russian journalist Alisa Kustikova during an interview with IMS at the conference venue, Rio’s first private university.

In addition to her day job as editor in chief of the website Lenizdat.ru, Alisa Kustikova is one of the coordinators of Scoop Russia, a network for investigative journalists in Russia which has brought together young investigative journalists from the Northwestern part of the country in a mentoring and grants programme.

Belief that stories can cause change

Alisa Kustikova and eight of her Russian colleagues from Scoop Russia took part in the eighth Global Investigative Journalism conference in Rio to learn and gather inspiration from other colleagues working in difficult or high-tech environments around the world.

“At my first investigative journalism conference in Kyiv in 2011, I was impressed not only with the level of speakers but the many people who believed that they could change circumstances with their investigative stories. The same goes for this conference which has the participation of such extraordinary investigative journalists as Roman Shleinov of the business paper Vedomosti. He is also a former reporter on the opposition paper Novaya Gazeta. Seven journalists from this paper, including the well-known Anna Politkovskaja, have lost their lives as a consequence of their journalistic work,” she says.

As well as being a Scoop Russia coordinator for North-west Russia, Alisa Kustikova, despite being only in her early twenties, is already the editor in chief of the online media Lenizdat.ru, a website that writes about media in Russia and Freedom of Expression issues. While the website does not as such carry out in-depth investigative journalism, it has tried to improve access to information from official channels through an online, public campaign aimed at raising awareness of the severe delays in responses to access to information requests put to the authorities.

“I feel that I can work quite freely,” she says. “Of course there are limitations on some topics.”

“The Vanity Fair of investigative journalism”

For Alisa Kustikova, taking part in the Global Investigative Journalism Conference has been an eyeopener in relation to learning how to optimise online information search methods and how to visualise data.

“I find there is a lack of knowledge in the Russian media on the many new electronic tools available that for example enable you to combine text with visual elements like infographics , sound cloud, document cloud, etc. For this reason, the teaching sessions on this are very interesting for me,” she explains.

“Another major benefit is the opportunity to be amongst the best of the best – a type of Vanity Fair for investigative journalists. Also, it is a great opportunity to find partners for new projects,” she adds.

Scoop Russia – a shared sense of purpose in investigative journalism

The IMS-supported SCOOP Russia network supports investigative journalists with funds and training to improve investigative journalism and provide participants with input from peers outside the country. Support for more than 14 journalistic investigations on issues such as corruption, appalling conditions for war veterans and the lack of state-subsidised medical supplies has been provided in the last year.

For Alisa Kustikova, the Scoop Russia network of journalists has meant an opportunity to expand her knowledge about investigative journalism and it has created a shared sense of purpose amongst colleagues in the network. Her role as a coordinator in the Northwestern part of Russia is amongst other things to identify new journalists with good ideas for stories that can join the network.

“There have been examples of where Scoop Russia trained journalists have passed on their knowledge and advice about investigative journalism to other journalists in the media,” she says.

Scoop Russia implemented by the Swedish Association of Investigative Journalists (FGJ) and the Danish Association of Investigative Journalism (FUJ) in cooperation with International Media Support (IMS). Learn more about Scoop Russia and the investigations carried out within the scope of the network at http://i-scoop.org/scoop/russia/.