London visit rounds-off investigative journalism programme

Three journalists from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have spent a week in London with the Thomson Foundation as part of a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office programme designed to support south Asian journalists exposing corrupt practices.

Upendra Herath of Hiru TV, Sri Lanka, Mosabber Hossain of Prothom Alo and Amin al Rasheed of ABC Radio, Bangladesh, earned their place on the study tour through winning the South Asia Inquirer award, which was backed by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

During the week the trio met parliamentarians, editors and British-Asian community leaders to discuss how regional transparency issues in south Asia are affecting the UK. They also took part in an investigative journalism workshop and visited the London HQ of Google to learn about tools it has developed that can help journalists with their investigations.

Mosabber Hossain said the trip had been a great opportunity . He added: This trip and workshop on investigative journalism will help me in my future reporting.

Amin Al Rasheed said the visit developed his understanding of foreign media and demonstrated the type of team spirit thats needed for a one-hour news bulletin .

But the study tour is only one element of the programme's work to give journalists a better understanding of public finance and transparency issues.

Project partners, the Sri Lankan College of Journalism and MRDI Bangladesh, have both seen how the South Asia Inquirer award has helped to enthuse and encourage editors and journalists to engage in deeper investigative reporting.

And a series of training sessions organised alongside the award in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, were a key part of the programme's aim to help journalists learn about how to cover transparency and public finance.

Clear impact Hasibur Rahman, executive director of the Thomson Foundation's Bangladesh partner MRDI, has said that the Inquirer is having "a clear impact" on the way the media cover these issues.

The three winning stories exemplify how investigative reporting in south Asia is going deeper than ever before, and helping authorities to hold corrupt individuals to account.

Upendra Herath's story for Hiru TV focused in on murky land deals in Sri Lankas farming sector involving government officials and masterminded by a Sri Lankan expat who hid from authorities by using fraudulent identification.

It was only once we caught him on hidden cameras that officials got to know who he is, said Upendra. Once they aired our story, police surrounded his place and got him arrested.

The fraud was one of the biggest of its kind in Sri Lanka involving approximately US$3.6m worth of government lands.

Mossaber Hossain from Bangladesh daily Prothom Alo looked into the opaque business ownership of senior Bangladesh politicians, whilst Amin al Rasheed of ABC Radio Bangladesh uncovered corruption in housing projects that were funded by the international community in the aftermath of Cyclone Ayla.

In a three-part series, Amin looked at how the misuse of public money had affected the poor people of the coastal area. After my reporting the government undertook a new project to reconstruct the houses and the project is ongoing now, he revealed.

LINK:	http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/news-and-features/2014/06/16/london-v...
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