After more than 40 years as an investigative journalist, Gerard Ryle said that people need to “trust” journalism again so that the general public can remain informed.
Ryle spoke about “Exposing Wrongdoing in the World” as part of an onstage conversation with CBC Ideas host Nahlah Ayed at the annual Dalton Camp Lecture in Journalism on March 27.
“No one trusts what we’re doing and I think we have to re-establish that trust,” he said.
As the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) executive director, Ryle has become one of the best-known journalists in the world.
The ICIJ, composed of a network of more than 290 investigative journalists, has worked on relevant investigations including Offshore Leaks, Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers and FinCEN Files.
During the lecture, Ryle shared what drew him into investigative journalism with students, faculty, staff and guests. He said that as a “small person,” being able to show other people what’s happening in the world motivates him.
“Inequity is probably the one word that I would use that drives me,” said Ryle.
He has chased stories and revealed secrets about the rich and powerful that have led to arrests in more than 70 countries. One of the major ICIJ investigations involved the Panama Papers, one of the largest global corruption scandals with over 11.5 million files leaked in 2016. This investigative journalism implicated world leaders such as the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Ryle said that the “beauty” about this kind of journalism is that reporters and journalists never “run out of stories.”
“When you uncover something like [offshore tax havens], what happens is that this corruption just gets a little bit more sophisticated.”
At the same time, Ryle thinks it’s “depressing” to find out how people manage to steal not only millions but billions of dollars to build generational wealth.
He said it is important that the public feels “angry” about that news so that lawmakers must listen to them and institute new legislation.
However, with the digitization of information, Ryle said journalism has become fractured and lacks engagement from people.
“Things that were keeping society together are disappearing,” he said. “When we do a story, you usually get a reaction and I think we’re at a period of time where you’re probably not getting the kind of reaction you used to get.”
He encourages young journalists not to listen to anyone who tells them they cannot do it and to look around for sources — they can never know if their next source is right next to them.
Ryle highlighted that the most essential thing to remember is that journalists have a duty to the public whenever they face a dilemma on which sources of information to accept from people.
“Your job as a journalist is to the public,” he said. “It’s not to courts or anyone else. Is this material of public interest? And if it is, then I will take the material.”
He also said that the lack of investigative reports have affected the finding of reliable information and journalists have lost the trust of the public.
“[People] need journalism that they can trust,” he said. “I think that’s the thing that’s been broken. We need to rebuild it.”
