Hardcore evidence is key to investigative journalism — Anas tells African investigative journalists

Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has underscored the need for investigative journalists to get hold of hardcore evidence when they are engaged in a mission to expose wrongdoing. 

He emphasised that having such evidence was the finest way to successfully substantiate, particularly when there is the need to do so in a law court when claims are made that a crime had been committed.

Anas said this when he addressed African journalists on Wednesday during a session at the ongoing 20th edition of the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

 “When I go undercover, I am taking evidence that I know that when I stand in the court of law with that evidence, that person (the culprit) will be jailed. Those are the key things I look at when I go undercover.

“This attracts a lot of criticism. For example, when I was doing this story on football, I was sued 66 times and I won all. I’m just trying to emphasise the fact that hardcore evidence is the key to the work we do,” he stated.

“When you say a crime has been committed, you’ve got to be able to substantiate the fact that the said crime has been committed. It doesn’t also make undercover a first line.

“Undercover is always the last line. When all conventional cameras cannot put that evidence together, that is when you decide to go undercover,” he added.

Excerpts of some of the investigative works Anas undertook in the past and a recent one he did with the BBC — “Slavery at Sea”— were shown to the audience during the session.

Anas’ “Slavery at Sea” is a story about Africans who underwent a lot of pain as a result of being trafficked to Scotland.

It highlights the victims’ experiences and how the person responsible for their plight was investigated through an undercover operation and arrested.

The session was moderated by one of Ghana’s globally known investigative journalists, Emmanuel K. Dogbevi, who is also a speaker at the conference.

Investigative journalist with Media Without Borders and Ghana’s current Best Journalist of the Year, Edward Adeti, featured in the same session as a speaker.

Fielding questions from the audience after making a presentation on his award-winning story— “Stealing from the Sick”— Adeti detailed the threats that emerged as a result of the story.

He urged journalists to speak the truth at all times no matter the consequences associated with doing so.

“Journalists should not be afraid of pain, hunger, rejection and death. The truth is that whether you speak the truth or not, you will still go. It is better to speak the truth and go well. “Leonardo da Vinci said, ‘As a day well spent gives a joyful sleep, so does a life well spent give a joyful death’.

As journalists, we should be as very true to ourselves as possible so that we finish our mission on earth and we should be smiling when we are about to die,” Adeti said.

Adeti’s “Stealing from the Sick” reveals how Ghana lost millions of cedis in medicines stolen on a massive scale for about two years from the Upper East Regional Hospital in Ghana. The thefts caused rampant drug shortages at the public hospital, resulting in loss of lives and saw the conditions of some patients worsen. The investigation led to the arrests and ongoing criminal trial of some members of the syndicate responsible for the thefts. There are other speakers appearing in different sessions at the 3-day conference which began on Wednesday and ends on Friday, this week.