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Investigative Stories Get World’s
Attention
Contaminated food. Shady dealings by politicians. Law enforcement officials breaking the very laws they are paid to enforce. These are just some of the stories that earned Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) international recognition with the Online News Association’s (ONA) Journalism Award for best investigative story at a small organization’s website, The award was given in Toronto for CIN’s series on widespread problems with food safety. Winners in other categories included Wired Magazine, the Associated Press and the Washington Post. CIN also won the Journalism Integrity Award in BiH from Transparency International, who said: "The Center for Investigative Reporting’s uncompromised and systematic work gathering and analysis of information has provided the citizens of BiH the possibility to learn if the officials they elect actually work for their best interests.” "It's an honor to be mentioned with these other fine organizations and this proves that Bosnian journalists are doing some of the best work in the world in investigative reporting," said Svjetlana Celic, CIN's deputy managing editor. "Our goal was simple. We wanted to find out if our food is safe and we now know it is not." Early on, CIN had a rocky start. Editors complained that the stories were too American and too long. But as time went on, CIN learned how to better target its reporting to local readers. And something began to change. Government agencies started to act on CIN stories. An international judge was fired when CIN uncovered a background of abuse of authority. A story on illegal workers led to a crackdown on employers who hired illegally. CIN wrote about a high- ranking law enforcement official who was involved in a fatal hit and run. With the statute of limitations about to expire, reporters doggedly followed the story until officials were prompted to act. The agent was eventually sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Earlier this year, CIN was also awarded the Global Shining Light award for investigative reporting for its series on energy traders. The award is given out by the Global Network of Investigative Journalists.
Istraživački tekstovi privlače pažnju svijeta
Uz to, CIN je od organizacije Transparency International dobio nagradu za integritet u novinarstvu u BiH, a tom prilikom su za CIN rekli: ”Beskompromisan i sistematičan rad CIN-a na prikupljanju i analizi informacija osigurao je građanima BiH mogućnost da prosude da li predstavnici koje su izabrali da budu na vlasti rade u njihovom interesu”. “Čast nam je što je naše ime spomenuto zajedno sa ovim ostalim poznatim organizacijama. To dokazuje da su bh. novinari među najboljima u okvirima svjetskog istraživačkog novinarstva”, rekla je Svjetlana Ćelić, zamjenica odgovornog urednika u CIN-u. “Naš cilj bio je jednostavan: htjeli smo da istražimo da li je hrana koju konzumiramo zdravstveno ispravna - sada znamo da nije”. CIN je imao težak početak. Urednici su se žalili da su priče bile amerikanizirane i preduge. Ali, kako je vrijeme odmicalo, u CIN-u su naučili kako da bolje usmjere izvještavanje prema lokalnom čitateljstvu. I stvari su se počele mijenjati. Državne agencije počele su reagirati na CIN-ove tekstove. Jedan strani sudija koji je radio u bh. pravosuđu otpušten je kada je CIN razotkrio priču o zloupotrebi ovlasti. Priča o radnicima nacrno donijela je konsekvence poslodavcima koji su ih nelegalno zapošljavali. CIN je pisao i o visokopozicioniranom službeniku policije koji je skrivio saobraćajni udes i onda pobjegao. Prije nastupanja zakonske zastare, novinari su uporno pratili priču, sve dok nisu primorali vlasti da reaguju. Taj službenik je na kraju osuđen na dvije i po godine zatvora. Prošle godine CIN je dobio i nagradu Global Shining Light za seriju istraživačkih članaka o firmama za prodaju električne energije. Ovu nagradu dodjeljuje Globalna mreža istraživačkog novinarstva. |
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