Alicia Ortega affirms the investigative journalist is a key player in the fight against corruption

SANTO DOMINGO- The vice president of the Group WITHOUT, Alicia ortega, affirmed that the investigative journalist, when exercising his profession with passion, ethics and sacrifice, makes great contributions to the economic and institutional development of society, by revealing irregularities and corruption in the administration of State resources.

By participating as a keynote speaker at the closing of the fourth round of the International Diploma in Investigative Journalism, who gave the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo through the career in Social Communication and Digital Media, and with the auspices of the Embassy of the United States in the Dominican Republic, Ortega shared his experiences, advice and good practices, keys to being a professional”responsible, ethical and truthful”.

"Each peso invested by a newspaper, a newscast or a program specialized in an investigative report generates hundreds of pesos for society thanks to changes in public policies: “bottles” that are managed to be eliminated, embezzled money that is recovered and officials that are exposed, because of what they hide or what they believe no one will investigate,” the social communicator told the 71 journalists who completed the course.

In his presentation, Ortega, who has received several awards both locally and internationally, presented real examples of cases investigated and that have had a great impact, including the Panama Papers, which he carried out with the group of journalists who are members of the Consortium International of investigative journalists.

He explained that for this and other investigations, analysis of large databases, teamwork and information crossing were required, aspects that those who graduated from the fourth round of the investigative journalism diploma addressed during their three months of training.

He highlighted the negative impact caused by corruption at the socioeconomic level in the Latin American region, citing that it costs 220 billion dollars annually, according to the latest report from the Inter-American Development Bank in 2019.

He added that corruption would cost the world 2.6 billion dollars a year, equivalent to 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) worldwide.

The keynote speech highlighted the importance of the veracity of information in journalism based on Seymour M. Hersh's phrase: "Being the first is not as important as having the correct information." 

Contributions of the Intec and the Embassy of the United States

During the closing ceremony, the Dean of the Area of ​​Social Sciences and Humanities, Dalul Ordehi, He thanked the Embassy of the United States for the trust placed in INTEC for the development of the diploma course and urged the participants to make the most of the knowledge received.

“The commitment to exercise journalism that is ethical, responsible, truthful and contributes to society with high-impact information has characterized this training, which has sought from its first installment to strengthen the exercise of journalism for those who already have a position in the media. , as well as the future journalists who have passed through our classrooms”, expressed Ordehi.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Hurst, embassy press officer, valued the collaboration of INTEC in carrying out the diploma course to contribute to a more informed, participatory and democratic society.

 “The Government of the United States believes in supporting the development and strengthening of free and independent media that allow the public to make informed decisions, demand answers and responsibilities from leaders, and generate the diffusion of a diversity of opinions and points of view away from the pressures of the State or powerful economic elites,” said Hurst.

For its part, the coordinator of the career of Social Communication and Digital Media of INTEC and of the diploma, journalist Rosa Alcántara, highlighted the results of the 16 research papers carried out by the 71 graduates of the continuing education program.

The research works that stood out were the irregularities in the bidding processes of the National Institute of Student Welfare (INABIE) for the school lunch service, in the periods 2021-2022 and 2022-2023; The impact of Dominican immigration policies on children of Haitian nationality; The participation of women in the public sector (political parties and powers of the State) and 4% of GDP for education, "shows that money does not give quality."

Among the criteria for evaluating journalistic works, Alcántara mentioned the evidence of a social contribution, diversifying sources, containing innovative elements and taking care of spelling, coherence, title and central idea. The projects were presented in multimedia and audiovisual formats.

About the Diploma

The Diploma in Investigative Journalism was developed over four months with a total of 60 hours distributed in four modules and six hours of professional seminars, with local and international facilitators. Journalists from different media and places in the country participated, as well as professors and students of terms of social communication and journalism from various universities that teach these careers.

The fourth round had as its central theme: “Investigative journalism for transparency and democratic institutions", of which professionals, teachers and students in the field of communication carried out their final projects and addressed approaches of national interest.

The diploma course coordinator recalled that the study program, which is taught from the Area of ​​Social Sciences and Humanities and Directorate of Permanent Education, has graduated in its four versions about 300 journalists.