Besnik Krasniqi, one of the first prize winners at the 2016 EU Award for investigative Journalism in Kosovo speaks about the importance of investigative journalism.

 

Investigative journalism is very important if we consider that many aspects which are linked to crime, corruption and different abuses would not be made known otherwise. As you may know, powerful people and many businessmen are reluctant to grant access to such information which sheds light to abuses, and therefore this kind of journalism is indispensable in finding the truth. There is a rather prolonged transition in Kosovo and this resulted in a very favorable environment, a paradise for people in power which make use of this environment to both get rich and/or provide favors for themselves or their relatives, as well as for groups surrounding them. This is why investigative journalism is so important because it uncovered many cases of people becoming millionaires overnight, cases where functionally illiterate people obtained university degrees, cases where crime and corruption blossomed. Hence, without investigative journalism, without continuous efforts of journalism to realize this mission of media, no problems which Kosovo faces could be made known, concludes Krasniqi.