Programme for African Investigative Reporting (PAIR)

PAIR works to enhance the professional skills and knowledge of the participating journalists and media houses. The goal is to establish support structures for investigative reporting in the five pilot countries through advice, coaching, and funding of investigations. With support from PAIR, the goal is for eleven to twenty-one national investigations to be published/broadcast per country. To date, journalists have used the training and support to cover stories such as prostitution in Ghana, contaminated water in Benin, and birth defects in the cotton fields of Burkina Faso. As of September 2012, eighty one investigations had been approved by the PAIR network and 45 have been published or broadcast in local media. Published investigations can be seen on the PAIR website.

Knowledge exchange and cooperation between journalists in the five pilot countries and Denmark is also a key component of the programme. To build capacity of media houses and enhance the professional skills of individual journalists, partners from the participating countries have had the opportunity to attend national seminars. At these events, the journalists are able to learn new skills, present their investigative work, and establish contacts with a wide network of investigative journalists.

In each of the five countries PAIR is represented by a local journalist, the national coordinator. The coordinator is responsible for promoting PAIR, sending out information about deadlines, receiving applications, and sending them to the Danish focal person. The coordinator and the Danish focal person discuss the investigations and choose the ones to be funded. Every year the national coordinator organises a national seminar in collaboration with FUJ, IMS and MFWA. The objective of the seminar is to present the programme and also to give journalists an opportunity to make contacts and share experiences.

Governance, Media Development

In 2007, a number of African journalists approached the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism (FUJ) to inquire about an African version of SCOOP, a support network run by FUJ and IMS for investigative journalists in Eastern Europe and Caucasus. As a result, PAIR was established with the goal of strengthening professional investigative reporting skills amongst journalists and in media houses, and to help fund opportunities for investigative reporting. Investigative journalism can strengthen transparency and civil society in West Africa by shedding light on the misuse of power or other activities which have a negative effect on society.