Investigative Print Journalism in Spain (2005-2012): Investigative reporters, their works and main features

Abstract

From veteran correspondents to renowned scholars, there are numerous media professionals appalled by the current state of journalism, far away from its duty as a guardian of the fundamental right to information. From a desolate investigative framework, a number of freelance reporters have emerged in recent years. Outside media corporations or in distant collaboration with them, they have developed rigorous research, hardly known amongst audiences, but of clear interest for the defense of democratic ideals, those that should be safeguarded by the so-called «fourth estate». This paper presents the processes of change that investigative reporting has been gone through during the last democratic era of our history, focusing on the particularities of its current condition.