ABSTRACT
Investigative journalism has played a prominent role in the recognition, protection and promotion of human rights. Key to understanding investigative journalism's role in relation to human rights is its function as the custodian of public conscience, patrolling 'the boundaries of civic consciousness'. The emergence of citizen journalists has acted as something of a corrective to this tendency, providing alternative, and direct accounts of human rights and their violations. A contrast may be drawn between journalists who report the evidence, claims and campaigns of external actors, such as human rights organisations and victims of abuse, or NGOs and charities reporting directly, which then amplifies those data, claims and campaigns, thereby raising public awareness, and journalists who pursue their own investigations into human rights. Investigative journalism proceeds from regarding declarations, codes and bills of human rights as representing an agreed moral position; that deviations from this affront the settlement, and are likely to be effected in conditions of attempted concealment.
