The perils of investigative journalism

PAUL KAYONGA

Last week, the second class of the Media Challenge Fellowship program entered their residential training or rather an aggressive peer-to-peer learning experience following their outstanding performance in the November, 2018 Inter-Institutions Media challenge.

The Fellowship, an aggressive multimedia journalism training program is awarded to the best 25 students from the Inter-University Media Challenge, a practical news reporting competition in 12 universities in Uganda Through practical reporting assignments in a newsroom setting, industry experts train the selected few in online, radio and television journalism, photography, data and investigative journalism.

Fellows also gain experience in various beats: political, economy, health, environment and climate change, and security reporting.

The programme further includes career guidance sessions, visits to media houses and training in entrepreneurship and leadership skills as an alumni of the fellowship in its inception class, and seemingly having a successful account of breaking the chains of defiant odds and entered the mainstream media.

Myself and a few of other colleagues in the first class received invitations for a penal discussion about our experience in the fellowship, citing its two-sided impact on our careers in the fraternity of the informed.

Nearly a year in the business of the clued-up, I must be living a dream of many colleagues in universities and other institutions whose dreams as mine were for years before March, 2018 is join the media industry.

The fact that this fellowship program was the last gate to my reception in the business of information gathering, management and dissemination, telling my story to those in the queue was inevitable.

The invitation expected by presence at J-Frigh hotel in Kikoni at 6:00pm on Friday 8th February, 2019 to put a human face and instill a seed of hope into the highly enthusiastic minds of the next generation journalists to which I belong.

Notwithstanding the fact that the penal moderated by the a TV Show Host; Tracy Kababiito aimed at sharing our experiences in the fellowship and its contribution to where we are, discussions at the sidelines of the main conversation focused much on investigative journalism and the risky-fortunes attached to it.

For a matter of fact, I have not done an investigative piece in a nearly one year of active journalism, but the desire to do one has never been moved given its power to build a strong and trusted career.

It’s the reason am not surprised the young and the next-Gen journalists are passionate about the niche in journalist.

This conversation came just two days after an NBS TV-BBC joint investigative operation into an illicit sell of government classified drugs was interfered.

Not just interfering with the process of executing would be a game changing story, but incarcerating the foot-soldiers on duty not even excusing the family of the principle investigator Solomon Sserwanja.

Spending a night and more in custody if not a ‘safe’ house for investigating a cartel; not for your own interests but a national cause through the calling of journalist sounds creepy or rather bloodcurdling but maybe not to ‘journalists’ in the service and those yet to join the fraternity of the informed.

A section of the young minds uttered their unfailing longing for a ‘risky’ venture in the industry and their argument and references gesticulates the true traits of a journalist.

Having a nose for news and risking anything not life to keep the world in a position of knowledge.

With all the perilous attacked to it, the burning desire for the young people in the industry to invest their time and knowledge in it affirms the saying that; “he whose voice echoes louder than the roars of the angry lion is bound to be heard and rescued than he who cowardly bellows give in without a fight to the old folktales about the king of the jungle".

This statement explains the death of charges slapped on the victims of circumstances notwithstanding the traumatic experiences attached to the circumstances.

I am swayed I expounded the subject to my best of my knowledge and the only thing I would have left was the monetary cost of producing such a piece.

Not because I didn’t its largely pricey but because I have never drafted a budget for such a project. Nevertheless, am looking towards doing one as soon as time.