Journalist corruption investigations can force authorities to watch their step

In an interview given to Voice of America, Oleksy Shalaisky, Editor of the public spending watchdog Nashi Hroshi [ Our Money] has said that journalist investigations do lead to corrupt set ups and machinations being terminated.  

Mr Shalaisky is among a group of journalists presently in the USA studying American experience in fighting corruption.

Oleksy Shalaisky says that the cases where journalist investigations put an end to criminal set ups can be divided into two categories.  The first is as a result of formal information requests to the law enforcement bodies prepared by lawyers on the basis of journalist investigations. The second – where an information wave is generated which the authorities cannot ignore, and they themselves terminate the criminal behaviour.

He sees one of the causes for Ukraine’s high level of corruption as being because Ukrainians are not fully aware of the scale of the problem and know little about the results of journalists’ investigations.

Bloggers

During the interview, Mykola Vorobyov from the investigative journalist bureau Euro-patrol pointed out that a prominent role in informing Ukrainians about corruption is played by bloggers. He says that there is a steady increase in trust for bloggers. They are linked to an editorial office, express their own views, using language which is more accessible and closer to ordinary people.