A new award for investigative journalism, initiated by businessman Taco Kuiper shortly before his death in 2004, has been met with dismay from broadcasting and internet journalists who have been excluded from entering.
Kuiper, an outspoken critic of corporate fraud who worked in the business publishing field, initiated the award just prior to his death. The announcement at the time stated that it was for journalism exposing business corruption and open to journalists across newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the internet.
Those near to Kuiper knew corporate corruption to be an issue close to his heart.
However, the trustees of the estate have elected that it be restricted to print journalism only and extended to include all forms of investigative journalism and not only corporate corruption.
In an announcement on the award, the trustees and Wits University’s journalism department described it as a ‘major initiative to boost investigative reporting.”
However, when it was pointed out that Kuiper had initiated the award before his death; that his stated intention was to open it up to all investigative writers irrespective of the medium involved; and that excellent TV and radio journalists would be excluded, trustee Tom Cloete replied: ‘Excellent or not, that’s our (the trustees) decision.” He claimed not to be aware that the award was intended to focus on business corruption.
Wits journalism professor Anton Harber conceded that there had been debate on the issue of restricting it to print media but said his hands were tied.
‘We could only work with what the trustees put in front of us,” said Harber.
Debra Patta, e.tv’s head of news, the force behind Third Degree and a tireless trainer of investigative reporters, describes the restriction as short sighted.
‘When you consider the very, very high standard of investigative work across e.tv, Special Assignment and Carte Blanche and the fact that to get stuff on tape is a major exercise, this decision is insulting. An investigative award is a good idea but they need to realise that this is a very small pool of skilled people, so restricting it to just print won’t help.”
Barry Sergeant of Moneyweb, who won the inaugural award worth R100,000 in 2004, believes that it now discriminates against new media.
‘The internet is a superb medium for investigative journalism. You can publish, for example, any number of 200-page judgments, permanently for downloading. This is impossible in the print media as are downloads of voice recordings, video and so on.”
Further details relating to the award can be sourced from [email protected].