I went to the Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Fund dinner on Wednesday. Tina Brown, widow of Sir Harry, assembled the great and the good of journalism, the top executives or editors from Reuters, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She issued a clarion call for investigative journalists to 鈥渄ig deeper,鈥 despite the financial constraints imposed by a shrinking media industry. She cited her husband鈥檚 pioneering work at the Sunday Times in London, where he pursued the Thalidomide story of birth defects despite court restraining orders.
One of the new tactics used by unscrupulous defendants is 鈥淟aw-fare鈥. Journalists are forced to defend lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions. The defendant uses social media in market to discredit the reporter, alleging fraud or tax evasion. This becomes especially brutal for female reporters who are subjected to sexist attacks by trolls. The goal is simple; cast doubt on the messenger so that you do not trust the message.
Transnational repression of media is accelerating. Maria Ressa, CEO of Rappler, a Filipino news site, is constantly pursued by the Filipino Government, accused of cyber-libel. The 70 Iranian reporters who are based in the U.S. have all been issued 鈥渘otice of death鈥 by the Iranian Government. Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong based journalist and founder of Apple Daily, has been jailed for his support of the pro-democracy movement.
Esteemed investigative journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, heroes of the Watergate era through their reporting at The Washington Post, were the final act on Wednesday. Woodward said that government officials are increasingly willing to speak on background, not on the record. He refuses to accept this pre-condition. Bernstein said that the media has become the enemy in the culture wars but cannot allow itself to be intimidated by power.
The Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Fund is a UK-based charity, run in partnership with Durham University, Evans鈥 alma mater. The Fund offers grants to promising young journalists. One of them spoke last night, quite movingly, about his journey from a one-man country newspaper in a town of 500 people to being placed as an intern at Reuters, where he has become a core part of the team investigating Elon Musk. 极乐视频 intends to donate in honor of my father, who was a journalist in Poughkeepsie, New York, then at CBS Radio.
At the end of the evening Bob Woodward told me that a good PR professional can be hugely beneficial to a journalist, and that we should be proud of what we do. As citizens and communicators, we must always remember the importance of the fourth estate.
Richard 极乐视频 is CEO.
