For Students

Adele Ferguson

Adele Ferguson has exposed deceptions, scams and heartless profiteering by financial institutions and weak oversight by the nation’s regulators. Her work has led to hundreds of millions of dollars being refunded to bank customers and ripped-off workers, as well as a Royal Commission and other inquiries.

She has won more than 50 key journalism and other awards including the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year, the top prize in the Walkley, Quill and Kennedy awards, a Logie, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to journalism.

Personal website

Four Corners:

• Mongrel bunch of bastards

• Banking Bad

• Bleed them dry

• Money for nothing

• 7-Eleven: The price of convenience

Questions:

1. What are some of the things that can happen when journalists take on powerful institutions?

2. How important are whistleblowers for investigative journalists? What role do they play? And what are some of the potential consequences for whistleblowers?

3. Adele Ferguson highlighted lame supervision by regulators such as ASIC and APRA over banks and associated companies. Why were the regulators so lacking in their oversight?

Questions:

1. What are some useful personality traits for investigative journalists? Why?

2. Journalists accumulate information providers or contacts in a wide variety of areas. Why are contacts important to journalists? How did David Wilson deal with his contacts?

3. When the federal police raided The Age, documents were spirited away by Age staff in order to prevent their discovery. Was this ethical? Why would The Age hide documents from the police?

4. Mike Smith said investigative journalism inevitably upsets some people. Do you agree?

Questions:

1. How important are company insiders in exposing corruption and wrongdoing?

2. What obligations do journalists have when dealing with whistleblowers?

3. Leaking inside information to journalists can cost employees and executives their jobs. Is it worth the risk?

4. What do you think motivates whistleblowers to contact journalists? Should journalists care about the motivations of someone who has offered them inside information, or just investigate the claims?

5. What is the role of the Reserve Bank of Australia? Why would its subsidiary companies pay bribes to foreign officials?

6. What challenges did Baker encounter investigating the Reserve Bank of Australia story?

7. How effective are podcasts for detailing investigative stories? Do they have advantages over print and digital platforms?

8. Why do you think the media did not report the suspicious deaths of two people in the Kimberley region in 1994? 

Michael West

Michael West is an investigative journalist who focuses on the rising power of corporations over democracy. He is best known for investigations into multinational tax avoidance by some of the world’s biggest companies, and exposing the influence of corporations on government policy.

After eight years as a columnist and investigative reporter with The Australian and a similar stretch at the Sydney Morning Herald as a journalist and editor, West founded Michael West Media, which investigates tax avoiders, financial markets and the banking and energy sectors.

His website attracts more than half a million views a month.

Website: https://www.michaelwest.com.au/

Questions:

1. What challenges or threats do journalists face when writing investigative stories without the backing of a major media organisation?

2. Michael West established his own organisation and website. Why do you think more journalists are not doing the same?

3. Michael West says there are stories that journalists and key media companies will not cover. Do you agree? Why do you think that might be the case?

4. Michael West Media is funded by his readers. Is that better than being funded by advertisers? Why?

5. Do you agree that corruption and fraud are increasing in Australia?

Kate McClymont

Known as the queen of Australian investigative journalism, Kate McClymont has exposed corruption and the abuse of power by key players in Sydney’s political and corporate circles. When on the hunt, this multi-award-winning-journalist will stay on a story for as long as it takes – more than a decade in some cases – to reveal the truth behind murder, bribery, corruption and other criminal behaviour.

Books:

• Dead Man Walking: The Murky World of Michael McGurk and Ron Medich
  (Vintage, Australia, 2014) (with Vanda Carson)

• He Who Must Be Obeid: the Untold Story (Vintage, Australia, 2014) (co-authored with Linton Besser)

Questions:

1. Kate McClymont says she cannot write some stories even if she knows they are true. Why not?

2. The Sydney Morning Herald has spent millions of dollars in legal fees over many years on McClymont’s stories, which is money it could have spent elsewhere. Was it worth the cost? Discuss.

3. McClymont says investigative journalists act as the eyes and ears of readers. Is that the case and is it the role of journalists?

4. Do you agree that there will always be a corrupt element in politics and/or corporate activity?

5. McClymont pursued some stories for almost a decade. Do you think she was obsessed or simply doing her job?

6. McClymont likes to highlight the absurdity of incidents or people’s actions. Do you think humour has a place in serious journalism?

Gerard Ryle

Gerard Ryle led worldwide teams of journalists who worked on investigations such as Offshore Leaks, the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers and Implant Files, producing the biggest cross-border collaborations in journalism history.

Their award-winning stories helped bring about the downfall of three world leaders – the prime ministers of Pakistan, Iceland and Malta – and prompted government inquiries and legislative reform in more than 70 countries.

Book

Firepower: The most spectacular fraud in Australian history 
(Allen & Unwin, 2009).

Links

Website: https://www.icij.org

Panama Papers:
https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/

Paradise Papers:
https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/

Implant Files:
https://www.icij.org/investigations/implant-files/

Offshore Leaks Database:
https://offshoreleaks.icij.org

Questions:

1. Journalists generally are reluctant to share story information with other journalists, let alone with journalists from other media organisations. The ICIJ model depends on a collaborative approach in which journalists’ documents, storyline and findings are shared prior to publication. How do you think ICIJ managed to persuade reporters to do that?

2. The Panama Papers and other projects stemmed from leaks of millions of financial and legal records. What factors should editors consider when deciding whether to publish confidential and private information obtained by leaks? Is there any information that should not be published? If so, provide some examples.

3. What was the impact of the Panama Papers?

4. How does the ICIJ use technology to assist reporters to sift through vast quantities of information?

5. ICIJ is funded by philanthropists and individuals. Do you think that is a model that could fund journalism more generally?

Sally Neighbour

As executive producer of the ABC’s Four Corners, Australia’s premier investigative reporting program, Sally Neighbour continues a long tradition of award-winning exposés of injustice, corruption, and abuse of power. As a reporter, Neighbour dug deeply into the untold stories behind Islamic terrorism. 

Books

In the Shadow of Swords: On the Trail of Terrorism from Afghanistan to Australia (Harper Collins Australia, 2004).

The Mother of Mohammed: An Australian Woman’s Extraordinary Journey into Jihad, published by Melbourne University Publishing, 2009.

The Stories That Changed Australia: 50 Years of Four Corners (ed) (ABC Books HarperCollins, 2012).

‘Operation Pendennis in Australia’ in The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's Death, Bruce Hoffman and Fernando Reinares (eds) (Columbia University Press, 2016).

Links

Four Corners

Personal website

Interviewed on the ABC's Conversations

Questions:

1. What factors are considered by Four Corners when deciding to pursue a  story?

2. Neighbour identifies a number of constraints on investigative journalism in Australia. What are they and how do they restrict the work of journalists?

3. Neighbour maintains that journalists must be ‘objective’ even when reporting the loss of Australians’ lives in atrocities such as the Bali bombing. Discuss.

4. Neighbour witnessed the immediate aftermath of the Bali bombings including horrible scenes at the hospital and at the site. She refers to going into ‘auto mode’ to perform as a journalist. Discuss

5. She is still affected by what she witnessed. How important is the work of organisations such as the Dart Centre in assisting journalists involved in this type of reporting?

Questions - Part 2

1. Chris Masters says investigative journalists require “moral courage” to do their jobs. What do you think that means? Do you agree it is important?

2.  Discuss the idea of working “inside the tent’’ and “outside the tent’’. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

3. Masters criticises aggressive interviewing, describing some of it as a silly game. What do you think? Is it just current affairs television entertainment, or is it a good way to elicit information? 

4. Why are documents important to investigative journalists? How can they be used when interviewing someone?

Bob Bottom

Bob Bottom risked his life fighting organised crime as a journalist, a source to other journalists and as an advocate for the creation of federal and state crime-busting commissions. In a role that is unique in Australian journalism, he often acted as a conduit between police intelligence units and reporters, exposing the Mr Bigs of the criminal underworld.

Books

• Behind the Barrier (Gareth Powell Associates, 1969)

• The Godfather in Australia (Reed, 1979)

• Without Fear or Favour (Sun Books, 1984)

• Connections (Sun Books, 1985)

• (Edited) Big Shots: a Who’s Who in Australian Crime, by David Wilson and Lindsay Murdoch, Sun Books, 1985)

• (Edited) Big Shots II, by David Wilson and Paul Robinson, Sun Books, 1987)

• Connections II (Sun Books, 1987)

• Shadow of Shame (Sun Books, 1988)

• Bugged (Sun Books, 1989)

• Inside Victoria: a chronicle of scandal, with John Silvester, Tom Noble & Paul Daley (Pan Macmillan, 1991)

• Fighting organized crime (BBP, 2009)

Links:

ABC Radio National Counterpoint

ABC Radio National Trauma in the Newsroom

Questions:

1. Bob Bottom wrote about organised crime and corruption but also acted as an unacknowledged source to other journalists, providing them with details of secret crime intelligence, approved by trusted police. Are there ethical issues with his having had these dual roles? If so, what are they?

2. Bottom’s reporting and the evidence he gave about organised crime to Royal Commissions and other inquiries placed him and his family at serious risk. Why do you think he was prepared to do that? Would you?

3.  Bottom says that organised crime remains a national threat, but that there is less media scrutiny of it today. Why do you think that might be the case?

4. According to Bottom, some journalists were crooked and had worked on behalf of crime figures and corrupt police. Does this surprise you?

Questions

1. Powerful people took legal action to stop Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon writing the Lawyer X story. Their newspaper went to court many times to win the right to publish. Why did they fight so hard? Discuss.

2. Dowsley showed the Lawyer X story to police prior to publication, conceding it wasn’t normal journalistic practice. Was he justified in doing so? Discuss. 

3. The reporters worked as a team on the Lawyer X story. Each brought different skills to the writing partnership. Do teams work better if they are made up of people with different skills?

4. Dowsley says his story put Nicola Gobbo's life at continuing risk. Should the Herald Sun have published it?

5. Dowsley says he still has trouble sleeping after the Lawyer X story. What stresses do investigative journalists face in their work?