Former Mundus student's publishing success
Guia Baggi's work on non-profit investigative journalism has appeared in the prestigious German journal, Message.
Pioneers in Eastern Europe
Under this title, Italian alumna Guia Baggi presents the findings of her MA thesis, Nonprofit Investigative Journalism in Europe: Motives, Organisations and Practices. In her work, Baggi provides a much needed academic account of the development in recent years of such journalism, studying three cases in the European Union: the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Bulgarian Investigative Journalism Center and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the United Kingdom. She also compares them with the centres of the US.
They might “play a role of unmistakable importance in the democratic framework of tomorrow’s Europe”.
Her findings were published in the prestigious German journal, Message. Her thesis was also recognised as an important contribution to the field in the article, “Fresh Mapping of Non-Profit Investigative Journalism in Europe”, published on the non-profit investigative journalism website Journalism Fund.
The article emphasises Baggi's observation that “centers for investigative journalism are emerging in various ex-communist countries in Eastern Europe, whereas no similar trend is visible in Central or Western Europe”. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, those ex-communist countries experienced the emergence of a community of investigative journalists and a multiplication in the topics to be investigated.
According to the article, Baggi's thesis also demonstrates the lack of homogeneity of the European non-profit investigative journalism centres. The three centres examined have different objectives and working structures. The next step for the investigative journalism centres should be to foster a transnational partnership among themselves, as they might “play a role of unmistakable importance in the democratic framework of tomorrow’s Europe”.