GIJC2013
Research: “Development Efforts to Promote Investigative Reporting: A Preliminary Assessment of Centers in Azerbaijan, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Bosnia”
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Over the past decade the international development community, from the World Bank to USAID, has come to regard investigative journalism as a silver bullet to fire at corruption and public apathy in its fight for good governance in emerging democracies. Internationally, governments spend more though media development than do private media on investigative reporting. This has contributed to the emergence of more than 100 investigative centers around the world, according to Center for International Media Assistance reports on global trends in investigative reporting. But while the goals of these centers are similarly lofty – reduce corruption, empower citizens, increase transparency, improve government accountability — results are mixed.
This paper will compare and contrast the evolution of four centers: The Center for Investigative Reporting in Bosnia-Herzegovina, The Caucasus Media Investigations Center in Azerbaijan, The Journalism Training and Research Initiative in Bangladesh and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in Jordan. Two of these are thriving; two have stumbled. We will explore the organizational, economic, political, and social environment of each