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How Much Does a Journalistic Investigation Cost?

04 May 2021
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În Moldova
Investigative journalism is the most complicated sort of press. Besides, conducting journalistic investigations involves expenses not any newsroom can afford. There are several media institutions in the Republic of Moldova which conduct investigations in spite of any difficulties. Anticoruptie.md, CU SENS, RISE Moldova, Ziarul de Garda, and Moldovacurata.md are already known for the public disclosures they have published.

These newsrooms have mentioned high costs of conducting their investigations more than once. What exactly does it imply? Salaries, travel costs, access to databases, graphic or multimedia “packages”, etc.

To make it clearer which amounts we are talking about, we have considered one of the most recent investigations, “Health Salvaged”, which reveals mismanagement of COVID-19 waste, a video investigation conducted by the CU SENS team two months ago. We have added figure by figure on paper, finding out that the total budget reached an amount of 66.554 lei (the infographic is enclosed – editor’s note).

“This amount is large, but we were lucky to obtain financial support from a foreign organization for this investigation. In addition, we also have a community of people supporting us. We would like to believe that this community will expand in the years to come, as we work hard for those who follow us and who are eager to get information from credible sources,” Liuba Sevciuc, CU SENS co-founder, explains.

In the context of the Press Freedom Days, the Independent Journalism Center suggested emphasizing the need for free and independent press to be supported by media consumers. Thus, on May 4, the IJC organizes a virtual flashmob with the slogan #SustinemPresa (#SupportThePress), encouraging media organizations, media institutions, journalists, and media consumers to join the event, sharing a cover photo with the message saying, “Information is a public domain. Support high-quality press!” on Facebook.

At the same time, the IJC launched an online campaign in which seven media institution managers explain why independent and free media find it important to be supported by the public.