<incom> FW: CI News: "Investigative journalism in Mongolia"
Michael Gurstein
gurstein at gmail.com
Thu Feb 22 02:22:08 CET 2007
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From: CI News [mailto:cinews at unesco.org]
Sent: February 21, 2007 2:59 AM
To: mgurst at vcn.bc.ca
Subject: CI News: "Investigative journalism in Mongolia"
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Investigative journalism in Mongolia
21-02-2007 (Paris)
Investigative journalism in Mongolia
<http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/23955/11703359763ipdcmongolia165.j
pg/ipdcmongolia165.jpg>
Setting of IPDC's community radio project
© UNESCO
Enkhbaatar G. is a journalist with the Ardyn Erkh daily newspaper in
Mongolia. In 2005, he participated in the “Media for Transparent
Governance” programme. Its goal: to raise Mongolian journalists’
awareness of corruption and train them in investigative journalism.
WebWorld now publishes his story.
It was interesting. It was challenging. It was dangerous, too. Twenty
journalists from popular Mongolian media investigated corruption issues
for the first time and I felt lucky to be part of that intense
eight-month programme. The team I was working with focused on three
articles whose titles were: "Suspicious Facts of Law School, True Face
of Two Friends and Freedom to Journalists!"
The training and supervision were provided by the Mongolian freedom of
expression advocacy group Globe International in cooperation with
Philippine Press Institute and the initiative was coordinated by
UNESCO’s office in Beijing.
We needed to find information, and information sources, facts, adequate
proof and documentation. And we did not have any experiences.
Beginning the investigation
In January, we received basic training in investigative reporting. We
formed four teams and we investigated corruption cases in the fields of
health, economy, education and environment. I was in the Education team.
In April, Yvonne Chua from Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism came to evaluate our investigations and help us with the
writing of our stories.
During the workshops we learned that corruption is more than bribery;
that abuse of power comes in many shapes and forms.
After hours of discussion, my group agreed to focus on entrance and
graduate exams at the Law School of the Mongolian National University,
where we had a confidential source works.
With the help of a person who shall remain unnamed, we were able to
access and copy the director’s instructions over the past 10 years. It
transpired that the Director, S. Narangerel, and his Deputy, N.
Lundendorj, were the only people in charge of the State Examination
Commission. Interestingly, we found that around ten present and former
Members of the Parliament received degrees from the evening faculty of
the Law School. Yet we found no trace of their enrollment at the school.
Documents further showed that Mr. N. Lundendorj has got his bachelor
degree and Ph.D from the evening faculty and gained Ph.D while he was
working as deputy director.
We decided to look into the entrance exams to the Law School. One member
of our team went there and as she was submitting documents for
admission, a fellow applicant told her that he can buy the test of exams
for 300,000 Mongolian togrogs (approximately US $258). He proposed that
they share the amount.
A day before exams, our journalist and the applicant were given 42
questions out of the 50 questions of the entrance exam, enough to pass.
Both took the exam and both were admitted. The questions were given to
them by the sister of the applicant who had dinner with the director of
the law school the day before the exam.
The guy had arranged for the questions to be bought demanded his
payment. After long discussion, we decided to tell him the truth. He was
shocked and asked not to publish his name.
The results
Journalists completed their articles in October and our material was
published with the team names. It is sad to say that our team refused to
publish one of the stories we investigated. Instead, we published one
titled “Freedom to Journalists!”
The story we did not publish exposed serious corruption, but we couldn’t
publish it and this is very regrettable. Current legislation means that
following somebody is persecution, collecting information is
infringement of privacy and may violate legislation protection the
secrets of organizations or the state. Taking pictures can be considered
an encroachment on the subject’s private life and recording their voices
without consent is illegal. Criticizing someone is tantamount to
defamation. And judges require notary verification before they will
accept the documents we may produce as valid evidence. The law does not
provide for freedom of information, nor does it recognize our rights to
protect our sources.
If investigative reporters must work the way detectives do, that is not
possible in Mongolia. We did do it, but we ran the risk of being accused
in violation of numerous provisions of the Criminal Law.
And we wouldn’t stand much of a chance of winning in front of a court of
law. Even if we enjoyed a fair trial, we would lose the case because
there is no Mongolian law to protects us.
In the end, we learned how to look out for and detect corruption. But we
have also learned to practice self-censorship.
_____
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