Bureau’s reporting praised in South Africa
The Bureau’s reputation for hard-hitting investigative journalism has now reached as far South Africa.
South Africa’s Daily Maverick, an online news and analysis site, hailed the Bureau as a saviour of investigative journalism that has bucked the trend towards fast-breaking, 24-hour news.
In particular, the publication praised the Bureau’s on-going investigation into drone strikes that has contradicted President Obama’s assertion that the use of drones is a “targeted, focused effort” which had “not caused a huge number of civilian casualties”.
Also highlighted were investigations into conflicts of interests of scientists recommending Tamiflu to the WHO, an award-winning nine-month investigation into how the European Union’s structural funds pot was used and the high-profile story on lobbying within the Tory party.
The Daily Maverick contrasts the work of the Bureau with statistics from a 2006 study that found although 42% of the largest newspapers in the US expressed “a lot” of interest in investigative reporting, 37% of newspapers had no full-time investigative reporters.
It goes on to quote David Sirota who lamented what he called “Watergate’s lost legacy…Though there are certainly some very fine investigative reporters left, they have become a rare breed, usually replaced by blow-dried blowhards who spend more time sucking up to power than challenging it.”
The article concludes: “Many journalists and editors will sigh with envy at the thought of being able to devote nine months to a single investigation. But sometimes, it seems, that’s simply how long it takes to get at the truth. It’s an unpopular idea in a world of Twitter-broken news.”
