Journalistic investigations have to be balanced- Danish investigative journalist

Danish investigative journalists consider it indispensable to provide comments of those persons who are involved in their investigations, as an investigative journalist from Danemark Esper Newmak told IMI.

According to her, for this purpose at the stage of preparation of the material, the target of the investigation receives the list of questions and a notification that an investigation is being prepared.

“Journalistic investigations should contain all opinions about the problem being covered. We provide an opportunity to present all sides of the conflict in one piece, ” Esper Newmak said.

She also noted that there were cases where the persons give comments with no relation to the investigation or they did not comment at all. "In such cases, we report that the other party failed to respond or refused to respond," the journalist said.

According to Esper Newmak, it usually takes about a week to respond, but if a person asks for more time, the journalists make concession.

Photo credit: newtimes.kz