The taliban as a legitimate Political Group as part of negotiations aimed at ending more than sixteen years of war. Those are all the headlines the stream is coming up next. Facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the socalled secret city getting to the heart of the matter while you activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on the talk to aljazeera at this time. Have had me ok youre in the stream today we met another enemy out unless africas most feared undercover journalist in line who never shows his face on camera im really could be a lot if youre watching us live on you tube or following along on twitter send us your questions and ill do my best suppose to add us out before we jump into the conversation heres a look at the sort of what does in this clip we see here expose a practice in gaza in which disabled children are killed because i believe to be possessed by evil spirits have a look. At them that i care about her. And. Finally ready to admin is that. We may go into the bedroom where they demand i handle whether they still dont know if theyre republican. Rest. But that i. Got a journalist on last hour email on us is the most renowned investigative journalist on the continent of africa and with good reason since starting his korea twenty years ago he has exposed corrupt Police Judges employers and government officials he has caught criminals in the act he has rescued traffic children his motto is a name shame and jail so up to the people his journalism as a sposed have found themselves behind bars that makes what he does a Risky Business there have been threats against his life he travels with a place escort and a bodyguard and has worn a whole series of disguises over the years and thats a reality is with us now welcome also joining us today is a panel of Young African journalists with questions and comments for us with us from accra gonna be a c. E. O. Is a contributing writer at sports africa and Lagos Nigeria were joined by festus i are up and in boston massachusetts erica e. C. Is a get me an american journalist welcome to the stream everyone i want to start with a tweet we got from a member of our community when they heard that you would be on the show and us and hassen on twitter says he is our wiki leaks we love you and us now this is a good Reference Point for those who may not be familiar with your work but tell us how did you get started in the world of investigative journalism. Journalism as a print journalist in as i kept on moving up i realized that there was the need to define what exactly i do to be more impactful to society so strong to undercover journalism there thats what ive done ever since i did so because i thought that it had a more Lasting Impact on society and it helped that was the development of society so people watching right now things just switched on aljazeera youre watching a really well known gunmen undercover journalist have a look at him right now because it is an extraordinary sight and as we have to address this idea of you disguising yourself when did this starts. Well i guess as the work continued and we dived into many of the big stories and security implications became real. Me and my team or its needed to come out with some form of these guys that will ensure that you are alive to do the next story stories with the life of their reporter so we came. Decided to get this these guys and so its beats that i wear. A hat and i do this purely because of security reasons to ensure that i can live to tell the nest or did you realize its extremely i catch in an incredibly dramatic i i want to show how you did your ted talks i have a look here my laptop what you are not obviously but for our audience so theres a cables great in white cables and then another one that i share just a little while ago a whole series of different looks im just wondering if you really capitalize on this ad strawman it creates a name for yourself and its almost taken off beyond the work. Well the work we do is not about drama its about realities of society i mean if youve read their stories that have their real stories that affect human life and whove gotten into serious situations where we nearly lost lives and i dont talk for only myself i also talk for the african journalist i can tell you that if we say we are under threat its not a joke they have been every single day and those who could not take precautions have died many african journalists who have died as a result of picking up their month to tell their story and if there is anything you can do you can only do it when you have a life but theres no point in doing anything after your death we have found this does this even if i took all of this particular mask they face you see is not the fees that you see whenever im working weve gone into the use of food statics and that this just to ensure that we can live to tell the next story and even though with the mask for prosthetics or the blurring of the faith you have fans out here who are also journalists many of them young who are still worried about your safety doing the things that you do exposing the people you expose weve got to be a common problem do you also men out of malaysia and this is what she asked. I my name is just id like to applaud janice for your courage and youre an inspiration to many of us young journalists to practice ethical pointing my question to you is when youre covering a dangerous story how do you manage to protect yourself and your family from direct threats made by people who know you and who go to Great Lengths to not be exposed honest. Well i think the key thing about my journalism three cardinal principle that i look at is naming shaming jailing traditionally journalists would want to just work and then publish my stories meant for people to read in their bedrooms and and relax my stories is to have a needed impact sending that bad guy to jail thats where i get my security from there is nothing confusing or even doing a story and finding the same bad guys on the same street with you so if we talk of security security means that i do my story very well i got out there hard core evidence ill go to the court of law testify and ensure that bad guy goes behind bass if i kept that guy walking on the streets he is more of a bigger danger to me and my team than anything else so yes if i look at security how to keep their family how to keep friends they key effect i look for is to ensure that whatever i do is good enough i got out the hard core evidence and i am able to present it to the court of law in through a prosecutor that pays in goes to jail there is nothing more comfortable than doing that one impact it is important ones that story is able to save human lives one that story is able to impact on the lives of those children on those streets of those poor people then i get my satisfaction thats why i get the security front. Erica there will be many people today who will be watching on us for the first time just understanding and appreciating his way. As a journalist he knows how would you describe his impact. I think impact is seen in the results of his work when you watch a piece or when you read a piece and theres direct follow up in the case with the children in a video clip at the washington beginning with me watch the arrest and then also in the case with the judges and with some of them being disbarred so i think when you see results in his journalism thats when you know he is a fact and i do have a question bring him back to the beginning when i started his career you said that you started out in print and now youre in the digital age and youre doing video can you talk to me about does that have another impact in your story telling us is reading it and now people are able to press play and watch it. Well it does as you see it its only introduces multimedia to me because to be a. Good journalist if you can make use of radio you make use of television imprints at the same time as what is the train you cannot just specialize in one youve got to be able to have all those skills so i think the print yes i was a bit slow in getting into television but today i can say ive gradually lent and when i combine these three fact this impact much more if we are breaking a story we are thinking about the print angle were also thinking about the t. V. Angle we are thinking about radio we are thinking online and does should be the way forward in order to be able to disseminate the information to all villages and communities we need to embrace all three so i would see that my background has really shaped me to be able to embrace all these three factors lets talk about some of your work and show some of your. Film an Investigation Called nigeria babies really. Honest can you just give us an introduction sentence i want to play a little clip from not investigation but tell us what to look into the story what was the story that you went to. Well the nigerian baby factories where theres a story where will we identified some people who made a deal of business to come Young Young Young girls. Force them into pregnancy they make babies and then they sell their babies as much as some two hundred dollars and hundred dollars and all that it wont simply baby factories and their rights of this little girls who have been abused they give where they never see the child so the aim of this story was to go out there and buy these babies and thats exactly the purpose we achieved and also we knew at the Community Side where does gayles who engage in that where all arrested lets take a look nigerias baby pharmacist at goodwood the secret camera we will visit private clinics and often it is to find out how easy it is to buy it illegally with no questions next yeah this is child of an age we are amazed to discover how one employee would offer to sell as despite the evidence ill health. Is willing to register as for a baby and to broker a deal. Or. So i guess when our community sees little clips like bad of your work we get comments like this this is you tube live your hands how do you get to contact all of these officials without your name and your face to be known so take us behind the background reporting on how you embed yourselves into these stories. Dont work alone i work with a team and saw before we get into an historic proper riki will be done when i say ricky i mean reconnaissance we spend a lot of time doing research before we get to the bones of it because my journalism is about hard core evidence and i dont want a situation where i get sued. In a court of law and i get to lose the case so we spend a lot of time in making sure that we get these facts right before we move in and i think that the key thing for every journalist is to be to ensure that your Research Stage is properly done whenever this is done you are not scared getting into the Community Also we must not make a mistake of getting one targets usually you have multiple ones you work on both and definitely some will come up well. Festus is with us from Lagos Nigeria first is when you try to do journalism in nigeria on the continent its really really tough what do you want someone as experienced as an ass about the way he works. Good relieve me from leaguers and your. My space with the Fourth Amendment and as with last conference in about an engineer. On my space i believe we walked. Right is going to. Explain both in. The contrast. Is kind of generally. Because. Even at the end of the we end up. Not unhappily just and nobody takes it from there just. That. We dont see such an injury. Nobody caused. I think this kind of. Spread disease should be also entrenching. African countries. With us tonight. Journeys in this. Just buffy unique. Country. Festus i do thing that happens is least i recall the five story i did when i was investigating i did a story called sole job and two hundred sixty people where i stand i was in a brothel and i had got evidence for three months the police did a big bass two hundred and sixty people where i stand and i went home that night very happy only to get up the next morning and all of them were released im trying to say that this thing is dont come easy. It takes time for your Security Systems to recognize the work you do so lets not feel that it doesnt work lets knock that dos when you do it one two three three four to us to see those things with you and you do do their best to help you see no one can help you define the problems you have done yourself it is us on the african continent who can properly define or problems we have so first lets keep knocking on the doors and lets keep pushing the francis of our democracy if we do that one day somebody is going to recognize you and is going to make sure that whatever you do do push it to that level because look which Legal Institution or Police Administration doesnt all feed on evidence every day is key and we are looking for the better of society if you have evidence today and nobody minds you to morrow if you have it somebody will mind you but the first is that let us look for evidence hard core evidence that is important in the prosecution or in dealing with these bad guys in our society is not easy but weve got to push the frontiers so i want i want to raise two points with you that were getting from our Community Members this is me badger in twitter who says in twenty fifteen he was accused by don is now special prosecutor martin i mean do as being an Anti Corruption person or its a made up word there mr i mean do at the time alluded that his work in exposing corruption and on a sport and judiciary was commissioned and possibly paid for by the president beyond the naming shaming and jailing of corrupt officials does he you on us have financial motives for doing what he does for you answer that honest we also got some questions on criticism of your work via video comments along the same beings as that tweet this is eugene and this is what he asked. My name is you know made you know that it was youre going to your critics are questioning your style of government every day for your story but i want to know why you still harping thank you. So the one hand you have someone asking if their financial motive is the other hand you have someone saying people are criticizing your motives why havent you changed. Let me go to uncle mike tsunami duce statement and today hes a special prosecutor for ghana and when he was being vetted you would hear what he said about me the good thing i would add to all of us is that we all fight. Against corruption and we all we basically do the same thing and we have sat down and looked at the books and i should warn people in ghana theyre corrupt officials if you havent called martin sitting on the seat and im collaborating with him then theres really going to be heat on those corals the fish us we have. Spoken we have looked at differences we have looked at the books and i can only assure all those skeptics. People that if its about the two of us we would definitely get together to ensure that the bad guys go to jail now let me come to my critics. I think first of all its fair to criticize the kind of journalism i practice i have tried and tested it and it works and look i am not going to sit down for anybody in an Ivy League School to predict or to tell me how to do my journalism im a product of my society and i do what suits my society i have chosen to name shame in jail i know that it doesnt work in maybe the u. S. Or do you tell me the u. K. Is not my community i know my village they dont have water i know that they dont have decent food so if i pick a story in my village i sure that bad guy who is sticking dust from my people to do the american would do it differently thats his business honest as the one in all of these how to look there are consequences to this and i was just recently you can see here on my laptop justice which is an investigation into corruption in the judiciary in ghana theres one point in this investigation where you bribe a judge just before hes about to make a decision on an alleged rapist that man the judge has to bribe that man then goes free there are consequences to your approach to your methodology that may also be detrimental incidences what happened to that man what happens at community did he go on to do anything else other harley other violence. What adequate in sequence is if not going to jail i mean edge of the season money and theres a critique about the judge taking money to free somebody hes not supposed to free how mean how can this happen where are these judges look my work has been telling on many grounds is to judicial scrutiny im a lawyer myself i look at the laws very well before i make a move on in a peasant book that i missed six mafia they are in jail for. Sixteen years all put together the story i did about my macusi argument hes in jail for fifteen years i did that one too about the customs people in jail for sixty years so i have tried and tested my method look i open myself up when i do my work for proper criticism my work stands the test of judicial all the time because who does work who does journalism in the world and allowed lawyers across as i mean him. In the court of law allows a lawyer yes sometimes six when lawyers course as i mean me on the facts i am saying that what i publish is not is not let anybody who thinks he has contrary evidence to what i have gathered with my hidden camera come and challenge me how come on aljazeera or doing member cover on c. N. N. Or the b. B. C. Is ok but do remember in africa is not how come yeah well it is the symbol of a cover same cameras we use and i hear you i just want to make sure i get quality in cause i know that youve been supporting young journalists very much as youve been doing your what i just mean looking at your twitter profile here solutions focus journalism activism human rights feminism from ghana with love youve been listening to. Is an activist way was the one question you really want to get out of the one answer. The question i want to ask you what is he doing to ensure the future. After hes long gone retire and what was the scene on that knowledge and the experience that he has to the next generation of across africa. Well i think that its all down to train it boils down to having people stadium do you and weve been doing that i mean im sure some of your people would see that weve gone to nigeria we are doing a little bit in tanzania we are doing something in south africa to get african journalists together. That weve joined to ensure that whenever we get that opportunity we have a supports that tiger i foundation as a support from my foundation where we are some of the generalist and to impact them with the necessary skills that they deserve to do result oriented and developmental agenda journalism that is based on hard core evidence and weve been doing that. And its been a pleasure having you. Eric and festus thank you for being part of our conversation. Has been going down online going underground sometimes is the way forward who does. Your work trust me and the world loves you. This is your first experience. Recommend you go on line to al jazeera dot com look for special series on a program called justice and so watching everyone take care. The sky they should be no borders up here. Only horizons. As an airline we dont believe in boundaries we believe in bringing people together the worlds better that way. It is a right for all of us to go where we need to go to feel with things we want to feel. To see the people we want to see. Thats why well continue to fly the skies providing you with everything we can and treating everyone how they deserve to be treated we do this because we know that travel goes beyond borders and prejudice. The travel teaches compassion the travel is a necessity. To travel is a right for all remember that this world is full of ours to explore. And its a strange thing for us to be apart. Cats are always going places together for three be displaced by their governments in one thousand twenty three for it was very greek and turkish villagers returned to their roots almost a century later. And reconnect with the past they thought theyd lost forever. People shouldnt be forced to move from dilemma where they were born which are. The Great Population Exchange at this time on aljazeera. When the winning the will of the people hinges on the mass media state p. R. Machine lets go into overdrive. But just who is influencing. We just dont know yet where the lines will be drawn between what can be said and what conduct that. Some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for outside the polling the media or opinion the listening post base time on aljazeera. Or. The second day of a russian sponsored ceasefire takes effect in syria day one so fighting continues across east and go to