HACKS from the new journalism investigations fund, which was launched last month, have agreed to form a journalist style investigations bureau which aims to seek the truth and to serve the public interest in order to pursue top-quality journalism, which they say, is lacking in the UK mainstream press at the moment. The Bureau of
Investigative Journalism (BIJ) will be the first organization in the UK dedicated to investigative journalism in the public interest, and will begin operations in London in the coming months - they are also hunting for a Managing Editor. Search Engine giant GOOGLE have lent their support to the BIJ, providing tools and software - and the Bureau will also use all tools available to spread the message.
A former editor of The Sunday Times, and writer of several key books on journalism, Sir Harold Evans, said: "This is an important venture in the critical task of reestablishing investigative reporting at the heart of journalism at a time when public trust in both corporations and politicians is at an all time low, particularly in the United Kingdom. I am supporting the Bureau of Investigative Journalism because without someone championing investigative journalism, the meltdown of conventional media means that further abuse of power will go unmonitored and unchecked."
The Bureau has announced a £2million grant from The David and Elaine Potter Foundation
as its founding donation. Elaine Potter is a former Sunday Times journalist and co-founder of The David and Elaine Potter Foundation, and Chair of the board of CIJ.
Guardian reporter, and author of the book Flat Earth News, Nick Davies said, "The world is full of extraordinary stories which never get written, because the mainstream media no longer have the resources or the will to do the kind of work which they used to. The idea is for reporters to be given the support to go and research good important stories. This matters because we all need to know what is happening around us, particularly when powerful people may be trying to conceal it."
Here's Nick himself, video below.Last month, a handful of experienced investigative hacks, from those who exposed MP's expenses to those who exposed corruption in sport, have launched a new fund to help support independent funded high-quality investigative journalism. They include the likes of Nick Davies, writer of the book
Flat Earth News, the star of the expenses revelations, Freedom of Information Campaigner Heather Brooke, and Martin Bright, who has worked as political editor of the News Statesman, Home Affairs Editor of The Observer, and reported for the BBC world service and Channel 4's Dispatches programme. In 2006 he won the Magazine Journalism Award for exclusive of the year for his work on the rendition of terror suspects.
The Brief Their mission brief is this: "The newly-formed Foundation for Investigative Reporting is launching a campaign to help secure the future of public interest reporting in the UK. We are setting up a fund that will support the kind of risky, challenging reporting for which there is a crying demand — and as an experiment to seek out new ways to support this vital work."
They add: "We urgently need to hear from you with your thoughts, pledges of any form of support, or the sort of big idea or information about something you believe should be investigated — and isn't."
Can you think of anything that you want investigated or followed up? To pledge your support for this cause, or suggest a story to be followed up GO
HERE.
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
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