2010-04-28

GENEVA – Alternative funding for investigative journalism is on everybody’s lips these days. Because it is necessary. But people are puzzled. How to pay for it? How to safeguard credibility? And does it work? Research grants seem to be a good tool: This weekend the Global Shining Light Award for investigative journalism was  won by a Scoop supported team for the second time.

This weekend the Global Shining Light Award – the prestigious global journalism award given during the Global Investigative Journalism Conferences – went to a team of journalists from Moldova, the Ukraine and Romania. The team worked with the help of a Scoop grant. This is the second time, a Scoop supported team won the Global Shining Light Award. In 2007 a Scoop supported team, who had investigated the electricity market in the Balkans, also won the award.

This years’ winning team did a classic journalistic story, when they last year followed the money of the Moldovan president Voronins clan. And found how president Voronins brother managed to divert large sums to the family during the reign of his brother, and how the family abused power to create monopolies for their businesses.

The team, who consists of staff writers and freelancers, needed extra time, money for travelling and so forth and got it via the Danish Scoop project. Scoop guarantees editorial independence and safeguards distance to the donors – the Danish foreign ministry – through volunteers. All volunteers are active journalists, who have nothing to lose but their good name.

Scoop has been working since 2003 and has so far won 21 journalism awards.

Written by Brigitte Alfter

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