Former KLA torture camp in Kukes, Albania, uncovered by Scoop journalist Altin Raxhimi. Photo: Altin Raxhimi.

In July, twenty-one investigative journalists from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe joined Western colleagues at an East meets West conference in London to improve collaboration and share methods. Albanian journalist Altin Raxhimi reports on the highlights of the meeting

By Altin Raxhimi, Albanian journalist

Non-profit media outlets are increasingly becoming the source of funding for investigative journalism. This was one of the interesting topics discussed at the Investigative Journalism Summer School at the City University in London (CUL) in July.

Chuck Lewis of the J-Lab in American University, Washington, mentioned at least a dozen new organizations, some including those that suffered financial cutoffs in the commercial media in the West. Soon the Pulitzer prize in the US will be awarded to non-profit investigative journalism efforts.

- Europe is following suit, adds Gavin McFadyen, director of the Center for Investigative Journalism at CUL.

- There are at least half a dozen such efforts trying to assist enterprise reporting efforts rather than on a transnational scale.

SCOOP, the IMS funded network for journalists in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, has with its modest contribution, and as a pioneer in the field, been one of the organizations assisting with expenses. Scoop has sought to cover investigative reporting expenses in former Communist countries in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union.

War crimes, tobacco smuggling and organized crime

Conference attendants had the chance to hear about how under-cover reporters Stefan Candea of Romania and Vlad Lavrov of Ukraine were able to uncover the incredible tobacco smuggling industry based in Kaliningrad, Russia. Further cooperation with British and Russian colleagues meant the stories that were published in the media in those countries.

Brigitte Alfter, manager of the Scoop programme, spoke about a joint effort of reporters in three EU countries in exposing the dangerous outcomes of the pharmaceutical industry’s aggressive lobbying practices.

The challenges of covering/uncovering war

In the conference session on war crimes, writer Misha Glenny, a veteran of the Balkan war reporting, focused on the ties of the war to organized crime. The legendary Croatian journalist Drago Hedl, who has persistently covered war crimes in his country, as well as reporter Vladimir Karaj and myself, who were part of a group covering the Kosovo Liberation Army’s atrocities in Albania, spoke about our experiences in covering the field.

On a personal note, I found covering such a territory a minefield, as it deals with both immersing into a detailed history of the conflicts that erupted in former Yugoslavia, and because nationalist passions and defensiveness was something we struggled against all the time. Crimes are not crimes if they are committed by your side, the story goes.

Besides, the story was very complex, engaging at different stages. We were at least five reporters, from the United States, Montenegro,  as well as a German reporter, and Vladimir Karaj and myself trying to find clues to fill in the puzzle.

East meets west speed-dating

Such gatherings of western and eastern reporters – if we follow such divisional labels – are essential for all of us, so that we can share, exchange, and possibly work together on stories that are becoming increasingly complex and transnational in scale.

That is why the euphemistically named East Meets West Speed Dating session was also a great start. Vladimir Karaj, for example, networked with a colleague from the Guardian on potential research on stories.

Candea, of the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism and a SCOOP coordinator, used the opportunity to gather his gang of investigative reporters and plan new work as well as check on the progress of ongoing projects.

Finally rhe face-to-face meeting between SCOOP coordinators from Denmark and other SCOOP regions also allowed participants to throw in new story ideas worth supporting in the region rather than remotely by email.

The non-profit investigative journalism is relatively new, most of it is less than a decade, and is gaining currency especially now that the media is facing tremendous financial and other pressures with the advent of the Internet and the political problems in all Eastern Europe. The solutions are looming from much closer now, and such solutions are part of all the efforts to better the democracies in our countries.

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