The force of the fourth Estate – investigative journalism in my country

by Daniel Drepper, Germany

Distribution and self-conception
How many German media professionals work as investigative journalists? Ingmar Cario counts approximately 50 in his book “Die Deutschland-Ermittler” [Germany’s Investigators]. The small number leads back to the scientific definition that investigative journalists are not simply harder working, more thoroughly researching journalists but that their techniques differ from other professionals, too.
Lars-Marten Nagel describes in his book „Bedingt ermittlungsbereit: Investigativer Journalismus in Deutschland und den USA“ [“Conditional fact-finding: Investigative Journalism in Germany and the USA”] that it is not farfetched to compare investigative reporters with private investigators. Investigative reporters for example, use methods such as hidden cameras and microphones, hide their identity, have secret meetings with informants and have to rake through enormous amounts of data in order to uncover scandals. The use of these methods is crucial for the professionals because there are, usually powerful people who are trying to prevent the publication of their information.
David Shraven, board member of Netzwerk Recherche and head of the research department at WAZ: “Journalism is printing something, someone else would prefer not to see printed.”

The number of German journalists conducting investigative research is particularly low in comparison to their Anglo-Saxon colleagues. Watchdog journalists, who cause a stir and are a pain in the neck to some are highly regarded in America. In Germany on the other hand, there are hardly any investigative reporters apart from a select few working for political programmes of public broadcasting, such as Frontal21 or Monitor, for Der Spiegel, or for Süddeutsche Zeitung. The extensive work is less popular over here than in the USA or Britain and is hardly rewarded. It coincides with Ingmar Cairo’s findings. He believes that in this has its roots in Germany’s young political culture. According to him, commentary journalists are much higher regarded than researchers. Cairo also criticises the legal and economical status of investigative journalism in Germany. He furthermore laments the shortcomings when it comes the education of young journalists.

Legal Situation
Investigative journalism is officially not restricted in Germany. There is no state-censorship. Yet the conditions for difficult research are less enticing. Authorities can, e.g. refuse to give out documents for years on end. Up until the Freedom of Information Act (IFG) was passed, information from state sources were generally not accessible. Since 2006 it has changed: open access to information should theoretically always be provided and only be denied in justified cases. In practice the situation is usually a little different. According to an enquiry lead by the German Green Party in 2008, only 618 out of 1548 IFG-requests were granted. Apart from that the application process is time-consuming and costly. If a suit is filed against a rejection, the prosecution has to bear the legal costs on top of that. That is why the IFG is only consulted by journalists when access to original documents is urgently needed and there is no pressing deadline for the publication. For requests at short notice that don’t depend on the original versions of documents, journalists can refer to the federal state’s press law – although authorities also like to obstruct this way.

Time after time there are attempts to undermine or limit freedom of the press. For example, owing to an EU-guideline journalists are not exempt from data retention which in turn impedes secret contacts. A prominent example of state infringement in German freedom of the press is when the prosecutors office searched the newsroom of Cicero. The magazine reported about one of Osama Bin Laden’s confidants, Abu Mussab Al Sarkawi and quoted secret service intelligence. The charge: betrayal of state secrets. Afterwards, the Federal Constitutional court decided that the raid was unconstitutional and thus strengthened freedom of the press. In a recent spy-scandal the German Telekom monitored journalists in order to expose informants from within their own ranks.

The power of money
The examples showed that in Germany, investigative research is not always and completely welcome, despite the constitutional prohibition of censorship and relatively extensive freedom of opinion and the press. Besides, they are often infringed and partly even suppressed, owing also to economic power structures and dependencies. Due to the worsening financial circumstances of some publishing houses and media companies, the interest of advertisers are taken a lot mor into consideration than before. Especially the two discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl punish well-researched publications with the withdrawal of their advertisements every now and then. For the affected publishers, damages can quickly be worth millions. The Badische Neueste Nachrichten dismissed one of their editors for a short while because she wrote a critical article about Lidl. She was rehired only after nation-wide reports about the story.

Daniel Drepper, 24, is Journalism and Sports science student. Additionally, he works as a free-lance author, specialised in sports journalism. His work has been published with Zeit-Online, ZDFonline, Spiegel-Online, Deutschlandfunk, FAZ, Frankfurter Rundschau and Welt am Sonntag. He tweets regularely under http://twitter.com/danieldrepper