The 2016 contests for EU awards for investigative journalism in Western Balkans and Turkey are now closed in all seven countries.
Need for persistent journalists and adequate support
The winners of 2016 EU Award for Investigative Journalism in Macedonia, Boris Georgievski, Ana Petruseva and Biljana Nikolovska, speak about the ways for journalism to have greater reach and impact, and give recommendations for new generations of journalists.
Boris Georgievski, journalist of Deutsche Welle and the first prize winner points out that reliable media are the best way to reach the citizens. Since such media are scarce in Macedonia, he points out the need to encourage investigative journalism and restore the citizens trust. Mainstream media have not only lost the market battle, but they also surrendered in the battle for truth, he adds.
Ana Petruseva, director of BIRN Macedonia and part o the team that won the second prize, also points out that media governed by party-political interests dominate the market. Topics of public interests that are unfavorable for the ruling party are often unreported, or covered by rare media that are then faced by the silence of the political structures, or by the propaganda machinery aimed at discrediting the media and journalist in question.
Biljana Nikolovska, journalist at Telma TV and the winner of Young journalist award, says the best way to reach the citizens is to report abut their problems. She also reports that the readiness of citizens to speak f their problems is also of greatest importance.
Georgievski recommends that journalists should read and follow foreign media and journalists, never give up, should trust their hunch and never spare politicians and other power holders from criticism.
A lot of investigation, reading, contacting people and institutions, and adhering to journalistic standards, said Nikolovska, pointing out that persistence is the most important.
Not giving in to the temptation of relinquishing the investigation when faced with piles of documents and a possibility of not having a story at all. This might happen, she confirms, but persistence can lead to a truly valuable stories as well, she concludes.