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Moldovan journalism has recently acquired some features that have a negative impact on the investigative journalism:
- The rejuvenation, even adolescentization of the editorial staff. There are currently many editorial offices run by editors younger than 25. I have visited editorial offices in tens of countries and I can clearly state that I have only seen such young “senior” journalists in our country. To understand all the peculiarities of a journalistic investigation, one needs several years of fieldwork, interaction with the sources and training.
- Famous journalists. Moldova has now more press than ever and popular journalists liked on Facebook. But these are not at all the ones who conduct investigations and fieldworks; they don’t read tens of files or spend whole days in courtrooms. Popular journalists are those who attend fashionable events, along with disputable and vague stars.
- Money and the quality of work – very often, they have nothing in common. A journalist, writing articles based on several counterposed sources, addressing complex social issues, is very poorly paid. It’s the stars mentioned above that get the big salaries.
Who are investigative journalists after all?
A good reporter digs everywhere, receives all sorts of menaces, worries, but does not give up. The satisfaction of his final work is not due to high salaries, nor even to the devastating effect of his investigation. I have not seen investigative reporters happier than those receiving messages of encouragement and gratitude from readers. Yes, this is the only price readers pay for the journalistic investigation: a like on social networks.
It is obvious and clear that due to the flabbergasting development of the online environment, the very few subscribers to printed newspapers gave it up. Consumers don’t give a dime on investigations anymore. They have them free on the web pages of the publications that wrote the articles.
*They have larger expenses. The access to the state databases is paid and costs inexplicably much.
* They have low incomes. Advertisement suppliers do not hurry to post on pages of newspapers criticizing the government.
* There is a permanent danger of lawsuits, which involves costs – even if the newspaper does not lose the case, it still needs to pay an attorney to represent it in the court. From our experience, lawsuits usually last 2-3 years. We even had a lawsuit that lasted 6 years.
It takes a lot of time to educate a good investigative journalist – more time than to educate a good news reporter.
Moldova does not have any institutions, nor civil organisations providing the investigative journalism with financial support. It is almost fully supported by foreign funders or by the governments of other countries.
I believe investigative journalism together with the news journalism are the most important in Moldova. The changes that occurred due to certain investigative articles were more significant and efficient than many actions of the law enforcement authorities. The “judge from hell” series led to the begging of the local judicial system purification; the “Palaces of officials” series led to both owners of palaces working in the government, and press consumers realize and accept the essential necessity to publish data on the formers’ wealth statements.
We believe the reaction of the competent authorities to the journalist investigations is the weakest link. Given the wide political control over a large part of the Moldovan press, especially over TV channels that impose self-censure, the few media institutions that still do investigative journalism seem to be even more forgotten/ignored by the political power. The only comforting thing is that the feeling of ignorance is not reciprocal. Investigative journalists keep digging more and more into the secret affairs of politicians, as well as all those of government representatives.
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This article is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The content are the responsibility of author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
