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Paul Radu, who is the executive director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and of the journalistic community RISE Project, Romania, gave an interview to the students of the Chisinau School of Advanced Journalism (CSAJ) at the Data Journalism Camp, which took place between 24 and 26 January. Natalia Sergheev and Dorin Galben spoke with him about the use of open data in Moldova, about the challenges of investigative journalism, and about the situations encountered by members of the RISE Project while conducting the investigations they published.
INFORMATION v. MONEY
Paul Radu specializes in cross-border journalistic investigations, and for several years has been coordinating the investigations departments at the Romanian newspapers Evenimentul Zilei and Jurnalul National. The investigations published by the RISE Project are also largely known and popular among the consumers of online media in Romania, Moldova, and not only. The students of the CSAJ asked Paul if the persons who they wrote about ever tried to bribe him or his colleagues so that they keep some information unpublished.
“There have been various occasions when we were offered money for silence. Not here, in Moldova, but in other countries of the region. We were offered hundreds of thousands Euros, we were offered jobs, all kinds of marvels. Obviously, we did not accept, but preferred to publish what we found while investigating certain problems. However, some of our colleagues in the press did get caught in such toils and accepted much money from corrupted people. In fact, it meant the end of their carriers as journalists. As soon as you accept money, you are no longer a journalist, and there is no point in working in the media,” he said.
OPEN DATA IN MOLDOVA
Paul Radu said that Moldova has problems in terms of access to offline information (printed, spoken, etc.), but its situation with open data is much better than in Romania. “Moldova has an advantage to Romania at the level of e-government and in the sense of information processing. In Eastern Europe, for example, Moldova and Slovakia are the best in terms of open data,” the journalist said.
THE INTERNET AND INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
The journalist believes that the Internet is the best instrument for investigative journalism, and also a much more efficient platform for publishing materials. “If you print an investigation, it becomes static. It is words printed on a piece of paper. However, if you publish an investigation in the Internet, you can use multimedia elements: attach documents, audio and video files, explanations about how the investigation was conducted,” Paul Radu added. He underlined that the Internet can give credibility and transparency to an investigation.
JOURNALISTS AND GOOD HACKERS
The RISE Project team is also known for its collaboration with hackers. Paul Radu explained how it happens: “Our organization employs hackers, but they are what we call “civic hackers.” They are not those “bad” hackers who steal from bank accounts or hack into websites. Our hackers work legally. They only process the information that is already public and give it a more usable form.”
When asked if he and his colleagues are tempted to get information illegally, with the help of hackers, Paul Radu said: “We don’t get information illegally, and we had no situations when we could get information illegally. I don’t think we have ever wanted to get information by such means. We are doing journalistic investigations; we are those who investigate the ones who act illegally. It would be absurd to start doing something illegally. Beyond it being unethical, it is also very risky and not worth it. A journalist must do his or her job honestly. There is a different problem: journalists often choose the shortest way to some goal, often serving someone for material gains and accepting cases from policemen, prosecutors, or someone from the secret service instead of doing their job correctly.”
Full interview can be read here.
