2013-01-10
COPENHAGEN - SCOOP, a network for investigative journalists in different regions in the world, celebrates its 10th anniversary. The first meeting was in Kyiv in the beginning of January 2003, after which a pilot project was launched in Ukraine.
Since 2003 the project has supported more than 400 investigations, won numerous awards, arranged two regional and one global conference and expanded from Ukraine to the Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia, Moldova, Belarus, Central Asia. Its sister organisations are ARIJ in the Middle East and PAIR in Africa.
The organisation deems its basic idea to have been proved right: "At the first meeting we used much time to discuss options for publishing thinking that many newspapers and other media outlets would back down, when they saw in-depth-reporting exposing corruption, organised crime and abuse of power. But it turned out to be a problem in only very few cases, and over the years we have found a lot of editors willing to run stories made with our financial support. There is a lot of journalism enthusiasm in the region waiting for support."
However, the organisation has problems finding funding in its core regions (the Balkans, Ukraine, Caucasus, Moldova and Belarus). With the help of their partner International Media Support they are looking for sponsors.
SCOOP Russia and Central Asia are still working and all projects can still be found on www.i-scoop.org.
