There’s an excellent piece in the Sunday Times today on Japan bribing voters of the International Whaling Commission to lift the moratorium on whaling.

I recommend reading the extended piece, linked to above, and not just the summary report on the paper’s front page. It’s a wonderful piece of proper investigative journalism, and the care the team took is apparent. For example:

On Friday the Guinea fisheries ministry denied Japan had paid any money to its delegates and claimed Sylla was not involved in IWC matters. Sylla was briefly put on the phone to say he had made everything up.

However, a reporter who telephoned the ministry earlier to check Sylla’s credentials was told he attended IWC meetings and had recently been at preparatory talks for Morocco as a stand-in IWC commissioner.

Wonderful. It’s been a long time since I thought that being a journalist was about shady parking lots and informants, but hot damn, every time I read a piece like this I can’t help but get excited like a kid. Hidden cameras, government bribery, and even a mention of prostitution. Cracking stuff!

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Journalism

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