Previous Posts

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  Want to know how many jobs Invest NI *actually* creates? You’ll be waiting another 5 years

  Very interesting report from the Press Association this morning:

  “It could be years before meaningful data on whether jobs created or retained by Invest NI is available, it was revealed.

  The Government’s main economic development organisation spent almost £520 million on selective financial assistance over the past decade yet systems to track actual posts have only recently been put in place, the Assembly’s spending watchdog said.

  Five of the largest companies which received Invest NI grants worth almost £145 million before 2009 could not supply details of jobs lost during that period, a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.” Read More

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  Six degrees of Kevin Bacon: The amazing connections behind one story

  Many of a reporter’s sources sprout from their personal connections; a friend of a friend, a colleague’s sibling, etc. In a tiny place like Northern Ireland, those connections become even tighter. The stories you work on could affect someone you know. You’re never more than a few degrees away from the subject of your stories

  This became clear to me while researching my book on Northern Irish politician Robert Bradford.

   

  The six degree game

  The Muckraker has an office in Farset Labs, Belfast’s only hackerspace. I was working there last week when one of Farset’s founders, Andrew Bolster, walked in. His grandmother had died recently; I asked him how the funeral had went.

  “It went grand. Donaghadee Methodist Church was packed to the rafters.” Read More

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  NI’s only clinic for transgender people turning away patients due to “staffing difficulties”

  Update (14/05/13): Belfast Health and Social Care Trust have issued another statement to The Muckraker:

  “While we have not reduced our service to the trans gender community in any way, demand is currently outstripping our resources, and we are unable to accept new referrals at the moment. This is a temporary measure and should be resolved in a matter of weeks, and we will be keeping in touch with those patients concerned.

  
  Discussions are also ongoing with the Health and Social Care Board on how the services for gender identity might be expanded.”

   

  Things aren’t looking too good for Northern Ireland’s transgender community.

  Last week, patients awaiting treatment at the Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) – the North’s only health service for transsexuals – received letters saying new patients aren’t being accepted for the “foreseeable future”, due to “staffing difficulties”.

  The GIC, based on the outskirts of Belfast, Read More

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  Lady Luck strikes again

  There’s no secret sauce behind breaking a story. It’s a process that involves 90% hard work and 10% luck. If you don’t have luck, you’re screwed, no matter how hard you work.

  Thankfully, with the Missing Children story, we’ve had some luck, thanks to a wonderful staff member at the Linen Hall Library. Read More

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  ‘Violent offenders let off, ex-MPs demanding money and Russian goings on’ – This week’s best #muckreads

  The Weekly Scoop is a weekly post highlighting the best #muckreads (investigative stories) circulating the Interwebs that week. It’s curated by Muckraker reporter Ian Silvera.

  MONDAY: ‘The Russians are coming’ by Darragh MacIntyre

  You can watch the film here. Read More

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  BLOCKED: Stormont’s reason to stop Defamation Act remains secret

  UPDATE:  The Belefast Telegraph revealed earlier today that the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson ‘took a unilateral decision to halt the extension of libel reform to Northern Ireland without consulting other parties on the issue’.

  The Defamation Act 2013 has been hailed as a great liberal reform.

  The law means Britain’s notorious libel laws will be curbed and freedom of speech will be improved.

  It is long overdue. The country had become a desirable location for ‘libel tourists’ looking to settle scores in foreign lands (more on this below, see Background: Why the Defamation Act is so crucial).

  However, the Northern Ireland Assembly (NIA) decided to block the extension of the Defamation Act to the province. Read More

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  The Missing Children Project: Help us catalogue the number of children who went missing during ‘The Troubles’

  Recently, we asked the PSNI to tell us how many children went missing during Northern Ireland’s civil war, The Troubles. They don’t seem to want to give us that information. Their decision is currently under review. We’ll probably be taking the case to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

  Now, we want to reach out to you directly for help. Read More

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  Announcing some changes at The Muckraker: say hello to our new Editor!

  So, here’s the big news I’ve been promising you: The Muckraker has a new Editor, Claire Cromie!

  Claire has been with The Muckraker since late December, assisting in the background and working on some neat stories. She is a digital journalist at the Belfast Telegraph. Prior to the Bel Tel, she was a news editor for a weekly newspaper chain in England, having worked her way up from being a lowly reporter (ahem).

  As Editor, Claire will mainly be giving me a hard time, making sure I don’t say anything libellous and overseeing our new secret project (being announced in June).

  Just joking: she’ll be keeping The Muckraker in order, helping us to do bigger and better stories and, most importantly, hold the powerful to account. Our goal is to become a sustainable non-profit and hire more reporters, making Northern Ireland a better place by exposing the evil and wrongdoing that happen here. With the #newsecretproject, we’ll be beefing up our investigative coverage and growing our presence in NI. She’ll be guiding that effort.

  Below are a few questions I imagine some of you will have so I’ll do my best to answer them. If you have any other questions that aren’t listed here, ping me on Twitter or via email. Read More

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  Some details about a project I’m working on: a biography of the Reverend Robert Bradford MP

  For the last 7 months, I feel like I’ve been living under a rock. I’m so used to sharing the stories I’m working on with you. But the stories I’m working on are getting bigger.

  So is the risk of reporting them. Northern Ireland is not the friendliest of places for muckraking journalism. In 2001, investigative reporter Marty O’Hagan was murdered by a local terrorist group. In December, a Belfast Telegraph journalist was attacked while covering the loyalist flag protests. That same week, a pipe bomb was left outside the home of a press photographer.

  When I started to get tip-offs about sensitive stories Read More

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  ‘Snooping tax inspectors, Boris buses and a £27,000 rail ticket’ – This week’s best #muckreads

  The Weekly Scoop is a weekly post highlighting the best #muckreads (investigative stories) circulating the Interwebs that week. It’s curated by Muckraker reporter Ian Silvera.

  ‘Secrets of Britain’s secret Shar’ia councils’ by @BBCPanorama

  Muslim women have suffered domestic violence ignored by Shar’ia councils, Panorama revealed on Monday.

  The flagship investigative programme went undercover to figure out what’s happening in Britain’s Islamic religious courts.

  You can watch the show here.  Read More

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  Wednesday Tip: How to read a company’s financial accounts

   I recommend that you use the free Companies House database Duedil throughout this tutorial to practice this article’s exercises. 

  Maths, endless pages of PR jargon and drab statements from business executives, it all sounds very dull doesn’t it? But investigative financial journalism is now more important than ever and this quick guide aims to help you understand financial accounts and enable you to reveal what’s really going on with an organisation’s finances. Read More

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  Northern Ireland’s police service refuses to release figures on number of children who disappeared during ‘The Troubles’

  If there’s one thing public officials in Northern Ireland hate, it’s being held to account. With one third of the population working in the Public Sector, local news outlets make a lot of money from the government via job ads. Let’s just say it’s had an affect on investigative journalism in Northern Ireland. Consequently, our politicians and civil servants are not used to being held to account.

  I’ve always known this but our lovely police force reminded me of it again last week. Read More

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  Tip for working on an investigation: Break the story down into manageable chunks

  One thing people love and loathe about me is that I constantly ask questions. I’m one of those people that needs to have answers to everything. It drives most people mad.

  For as long as I can remember, I’ve been this way. My favourite anecdote on it comes from my mother who describes the following conversation with my four-year old self: Read More

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  IRE announces its 2013 award winners

  Editors Note: The IRE link to the list of winners is broken so I’ve copied this from IRE’s listserv email (forgive me, guys!)

   

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  April 11, 2013

  2012 IRE AWARD WINNERS

   

  Contact:

   

  ·         Mark Horvit, IRE executive director, 573-882-1984 or mhorvit@ire.org

   

  ·         Lea Thompson, contest committee chair, 202-365-9083 or Thompson.lea@gmail.com

   

  ·         David Cay Johnston, IRE board president, 585-230-0885 or davidcay@mac.com

   

  COLUMBIA, Mo. – Investigations that spanned borders and oceans are among the work honored in the 2012 Investigative Reporters & Editors Awards.

   

  An intrepid reporter from Pittsburgh followed a story to Iraq to expose the cover-up of a killing. A team of broadcast journalists withstood heated criticism from the U.S. State Department over their work in Benghazi, Libya. A team of Swedish journalists traced its government’s money to a secret weapons plant in Saudi Arabia. A reporter in New York uncovered bribery in Mexico from a company based in Arkansas, with repercussions in India. A Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S. discovered a weapons trail stretching from Mexico to Honduras to Colombia.

   

  Lea Thompson, chair of IRE’s Contest Committee, said the winners serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of investigative journalism. “The judges were inspired and moved by gutsy, courageous and heartbreaking work – all shining a light on despicable actions and often bringing about change on issues we otherwise would not have known about,” Thompson said. “Investigative journalism is alive and well.” Read More

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  Digging up the past: What really happened to Thomas?

  Recently, I was ready to give up on a story. I’ve been digging since August, with little to show for it. It’s been tough. Few people are prepared to talk about what really happened to Thomas, a man whose murder I’ve been asking questions about.

  Two things happened over the weekend that renewed my drive. Read More

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  The Lost Children: How many children went missing during Northern Ireland’s Civil War, The Troubles?

  For the last few months, I’ve been working hard on a story I can’t talk about (search our archives for Thomas’s Story). That’s meant you’ve read less about my adventures as a reporter. I miss that. I miss talking about what I’m working on, “opening the kimono” to borrow Henry Blodget’s parlance.

  So, it’s nice to be finally able to share my latest “line of inquiry”. Read More

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  ICIJ’s Offshore Taxes investigation is a game-changer for investigative journalism

  Today, ICIJ released the “largest investigative reporting project in its 15-year history“, an investigation into global tax havens. Titled “Secrecy For Sale: Inside The Global Offshore Money Maze”, it was a collaboration between 86 journalists in 46 countries. That’s incredible.

  Aside from its scale, what makes this project really interesting is the opportunities it opens up for investigative journalists. Increasingly, investigative journalists are becoming independent lone wolves without the resources of large news organisations. That limits their travelling budget and therefore their ability to work on stories that cross borders. Collaboration solves that problem. Read More

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  When is it okay to give up on a story?

  Sometimes, being an investigative reporter is like having your insides ripped out and dangled in front of you: excruciatingly painful.

  When you’re working on a tough story and no one’s talking and public record searches yield nothing, it sucks. You question how good you really are. You beat yourself up. Surely, if you were any good at the job, you’d have found something by now?

  I’ve been having one of those moments. For the last 8 months, I’ve been working on an investigation (known to regular readers as Thomas’s Story). I’ve found a few good leads but nothing close to what I need to publish the story.

  Six months ago, a source came to me with information about Thomas’s murder. The same person gave me information about a story five years ago – it turned out to be correct. So I listened to him. I’ve been able to verify 80% of what he said so far. I believe he’s telling me the truth.

  Right now, I can’t prove it. I’ve knocked so many doors, filed so many records requests and have very little to show for it.

  At what point do I give up? Read More