Search, Check, Edit: Efficient Work on a Journalistic Investigation

How to prepare a high-quality journalistic investigation, where to apply for information and how to check it? Lesia Ivanova, a journalist and investigator, told about all these issues at the webinar from YouControl.

“Comment is free, but facts are sacred”, Charles Prestwich Scott, a journalist, politician and publisher of the Manchester Guardian (now the well known The Guardian) asserted categorically. Professional journalists have been embracing the postulate of the importance of seeking and checking factual data for several centuries already. And nowadays, when there is so much available information as there is sea sand, it is especially important not to get lost, to find exactly the data you need and to check to which extent they are true-to-life. That is the basis of a high-quality journalistic investigation.

How to do everything possible in order to gather the necessary factual data and also to present them in a quality manner? Lesia Ivanova, a journalist and investigator of the online resource Bihus.info and the program “Our Money with Denys Bihus”, shared these and other life hacks at the webinar from YouControl “How to Conduct a High-Profile Investigation”.

Secrets of the Profession: Sources and Emphases

According to Lesia Ivanova, there is no universal source of the search and aggregation of information. Therefore, a responsible journalist should use the maximum number of available platforms, since on most of them some unique information, the decisive fact of the investigation can be found. In general, the journalist usually uses more than 20 different resources, among which the YouControl system also plays a significant role. In particular, it helps quickly carry out a cross-search for people and companies.

In the process of investigating there are several important aspects that require special attention. Thus Lesya Ivanova explained in detail how to work with them correctly.

How to detect fictitious and “shelf” companies

In order to check a company for fictitiousness, you need to check it by several most common factors:

•  The size of the authorized capital. If a company trades in goods difficult in manufacturing and selling for millions of hryvnias, then the authorized capital of 1000 UAH can be a very eloquent fact. It can tell that the company does not intend to be anyhow responsible for its actions, and if problems arise, it is quickly “buried” and forgotten.

•  A large number of court judgements. Particular attention should be paid to criminal proceedings and cases related to the tax inspectorate (the tax authorities are usually the first to notice signs of fictitiousness).

•  Tax debt. If there is any, even small, it can mean that the company is not properly treated, its director and accountant do not care for its condition.

•  The abrupt change of the owner or location, especially re-registration on the front-line or uncontrolled territory. This can indicate that there is a desire to “hide” a company to avoid liability for some committed offenses. This can be an escape from the tax inspectorate or the prosecutor’s office, whose representatives will not look for it on the front.

“Ordinary human logic and express analysis of YouControl give enough reasons for understanding that something is wrong with the company”, Lesia Ivanova assured.

However, according to the journalist, now frankly fictitious companies are seldom used in fraud schemes. More often “shelf companies” are involved in them, and it is also necessary to be able to recognize them. These are companies established for the purpose of resale. They are registered at the addresses of mass registration, are “on the books” of ordinary lawyers, have the minimum authorized capital. Such a company is a shell that has no reputational and other “spots”, problems with the tax inspectorate, court cases, etc. When it is necessary to enter it into some game, the company is re-registered in the name of a well-known person, its authorized capital is raised (though it is not always placed to its account), the company is moved to a real, presentable office, a person, well-known in the industry, is appointed as its director. That is, it is given the look of a decent, large and, what is the most important, active company, and then it is started being used with dubious intentions. Such a company is as if real, but this does not make it less “shelf” one.

How to search for links between people and companies?

According to Lesia Ivanova, every journalist has his/her own approaches to collecting data, including the ones on links. In her work she chose the following principle: until all the possible information from available sources is not found, it is not worth starting “legwork”. Moreover, on the basis of the collected data it is necessary to construct your own profile of a person, a company, a case.

As for the sources, the journalist advises to search for a special approach. In addition to the obvious use of the state registers, it is necessary to be able to look at these resources from the other perspective. It is necessary to “look for windows”, not just “doors”. For example, the “property register” (the State Register of Proprietary Rights to Immovable Property) is usually used as a source of checking an official – whether s/he declared their property. But in it it is possible to look for information on bank loans or on the links between companies through mortgages. There are many “indirect” things there that become the first hints which can be developed later and confirmed by other facts.

Various services also help find links. In general, now journalists have a lot of opportunities to automate this process, rather than to draw schemes on Whatman paper. In particular, the tool of YouControl, which enables to look not only for links between companies but also between certain people and enterprises, is very helpful. The involvement can be seen through addresses, telephone numbers or other indicators. And these links will be 100% confirmed by proofs. The tool helps both find links starting from scratch and confirm a hypothesis. The module calculates everything technically and automatically and allows to avoid errors, not to miss something because of inattention or human reliability.

Read more: We Are Watching You! A New Module for Seeking Links Between Public Officers and Business

How to analyze financial statements?

Financial statements can help complete a “portrait” of a company. This indicator gives an understanding of the range of its activity, interaction with the state through tenders, etc. But how to properly analyze financial statements, since not every journalist has enough knowledge and experience to do that in a quality manner?

“There is no shame about calling for help in this question. You need to be friends with lawyers and financiers, to ask them to explain how to read financial data. If you are unsure about something,  contact financial auditors to confirm or reject your hypothesis. But it is important for the expert who gives advice to be a practitioner, not the one who is usually called for as a commentator. Journalists should also increase their own level of knowledge, attend training sessions, which are organized, in particular, by well-known audit firms. After them it is worth keeping in touch with the trainers and ask them for help. Journalists also need to continue their self-education: to read financial statements of different companies, to compare them, to acquire “a good eye” for them,” Lesia Ivanova advises.

Read more:

How to Correctly Read Financial Analytics of YouControl

As Simple as ABCD: YouControl Presents Its Recent Development — Financial Scoring

How to check sources?

Journalists receive data from various sources, often they are anonymous, so checking the factual data is one of the most important tasks in conducting an investigation.

“There is no difference whether the source is official or anonymous, everything needs to be checked. Moreover, people can lie or make mistakes,” Lesya Ivanova noticed.

From the journalist’s experience, there are several principles while checking. The first one consists in looking for a second copy. There are virtually no such documents that are not available in other sources. For example, copies of court judgments, contracts will be owned by at least two or even more parties-participants of the process. Each document needs to be “verified” – whether it is not a fake.

The second principle consists in looking for “mirror information” or a secondary document. You need to find other sources which can contain the information specified in the document.

The third one, which is applicable when there is no possibility to implement the first two options, consists in “asking to face”. Only one detalizing question, that is the statement that the journalist already knows everything, just needs some details, will drive the other party into a corner. By answering and providing details, s/he will automatically confirm the fact about which there are doubts.

How to Write in Order to Be Read?

According to Lesia Ivanova, throughout her professional career she has defined the rules on how to prepare texts or plots for them to be perceived by the audience, to be understandable and of high quality at the same time. There are five such rules.

One text – one story

A text, plot or movie must convey one clear idea. Then it will be understood and remembered. If you  disperse the audience’s attention and tell “three in one”, such effect will not be achieved. If the topic becomes very broad, it is better to divide it in series/separate publications.

Do not “stretch” but “push through”

Out of 10 ideas or hypotheses 9 may be “filtered out”. If a hypothesis is not confirmed, it is not worth “stretching” it because of a live broadcast or a deadline. Later you will be ashamed of that. Rejecting is normal, unlike stoking a betrayal where it is not present or you are not 100% sure that it is present. It is better to disrupt a live broadcast than to blame someone for no reason. If a story is really important and there is confidence that it can be developed, but the evidence base is not enough, do not reject but postpone it and return to it in some time. Really important things are often done throughout months or even years.

Be the “devil’s advocate” for yourself

Always think “what if ...”. There are always a lot of scenarios, so try to work out them all. And only when there is the confidence that everything has happened exactly as you see it and there are real proofs of that, then you can broadcast the story live.

Two editors are better than one

If a topic has been worked on thoroughly and for a long time, then certain “blindness” concerning both the factual data and the style appears. To the author everything seems obvious, everything in the plot seems important to him/her. In fact, a lot of things can be unclear to an ordinary person, since half of the information does not really relate to the main line, it is simply superfluous there. But another editor can detect that with his/her “fresh eye” and help “clean” the material.

The editor is also a human

It is also worth checking the material after the editor. The option “the editor has corrected – now it is his/her responsibility” is hypocrisy before your very eyes and “hackwork”. The editor can also make a mistake about details, and the responsibility for the factual data does lie with the journalist.

And in the end Lesia Ivanova advises journalists to be prepared to “face” the consequences of their work. Although it is impossible to protect yourself from everything, it is necessary to be prepared for different scenarios. It is worth analyzing how a publication might threaten its authors. It can be anything at all – from interrogations to persecutions. “If you realize the consequences, the question about how to live with this will not arise,” the journalist is confident.