How far can investigative journalism go?
In recent days the Czech Republic has been rocked by a scandal involving a TV station that tried to expose the dirty methods purported to be rife in Prague’s politics with the help of a member of parliament. They offered for sale supposedly compromising nude photos that were then actually used in attempts at blackmail. Hans Leyendecker, one of Germany’s top investigative journalists, talks about the case in an interview with the liberal weekly Respekt and concludes: “An approach like this raises legal and ethical issues. In Germany one would certainly be moving on the border of legality. There is a consensus among serious journalists here that one does not use methods like taking nude photos. … The journalist cannot act as an agent provocateur. His task is to portray reality, not create it.
