Undercover Guide for Investigative Reporters

Published by the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR), this guide is designed to help journalists to use undercover investigative techniques. The booklet is based on the experience of the author, Ghanaian journalist and lawyer Anas Aremeyaw Anas, drawing on his experience of working undercover, and offering tips and advice on how to go undercover to get the truth.
According to the publication, undercover journalism is an unconventional approach that begins when there is "some reliable information that the subject is involved in some activity that the journalist is certain cannot come to light if he employs conventional journalism methods." In this approach, the journalist does not introduce himself or herself and conduct interviews in the standard way; rather, the journalist embeds in the community or environment under investigation, "looking for or collecting information or reports and verifying it either with or without the knowledge of the subject."
The guide covers the following topics:

• What is undercover journalist?
• What is entrapment?
• Difference between undercover journalism and entrapment.
• Why is it to be used?
• When is it to be used?
• How is it to be used?
• 15 "hot tips" for using undercover investigative techniques.