N ieman Reports - Nieman Foundation - Harvard University

Shattering Barriers
OCCRP will not approve the story.
Using this method is how I was able to
publish several stories that otherwise
I would not have been able to get to
readers in Ukraine. After their initial
publication abroad, these articles could
appear in Ukrainian media as reprints
of foreign news stories. This method
is much safer for the publishers.
My plan is to launch a similar
investigative journalism project in
Ukraine—and what I will do first
is to use any funding we receive to
make libel insurance available to local
journalists. For now, a few of my
Ukrainian colleagues joke that I have
invented “offshore journalism.” I know
they are actually happy for me. They
understand that this is just a way to
fight self-censorship.
Citizens of Kozyn, Ukraine, speak with a representative of the federal government in 2004
during a dispute over control of a valuable piece of land. Photo by Vlad Lavrov/Kyiv Post.
was for me, the ways I had to deal
with it seemed more transparent and
predictable.
As the result of lawsuits being
threatened and filed, I joined the Organized
Crime and Corruption Reporting
Project (OCCRP) established by friends
of mine who are also investigative
reporters working in Eastern Europe.
Through a grant, OCCRP obtained
libel insurance, but qualifying for it
requires proving to lawyers that our
reporting and documentation is solid;
otherwise, the lawyers who work for
Vlad Lavrov is an investigative
reporter for the English-language
Kyiv Post in Kiev, Ukraine and has
taken part in several international
investigative projects, including the
award-winning “Tobacco Underground:
The Booming Global Trade
in Smuggled Cigarettes,” organized
by the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists. Previously
he worked as business and world
editor for Korrespondent magazine
in Kiev.
Enduring Pressures: It Goes With the Job in Armenia
‘… we have an unwritten understanding in our office not to speak about these
pressures if they aren’t life threatening; our problems remain within our
office walls.’
BY EDIK BAGHDASARYAN
Friends and acquaintances ask
me all the time, “What exactly
is it that you want? What do
you expect to achieve with all your
investigative stories?”
My answer is always the same: I
want to restore a degree of justice in
Armenia, and I want readers of Hetq
(“Trace”), the independent Yerevanbased
online newspaper where I am
editor in chief, to know what we have
uncovered.
As investigative reporters, we are like
the aquarium fish called the “cleaners”
who scour the tank for grit and grime.
We carry out this function in society
as we try to uncover the dirt and clean
it up. At times, we succeed. When we
fail, it means we aren’t performing our
task properly.
Numerous obstacles are placed in
our way, and they can seem unconquerable—or
at least be daunting enough
to discourage any sensible person
from trying. Against this backdrop,
investigative reporters resemble stray
dogs that are kicked and cursed by
22 Nieman Reports | Spring 2011