The watchdog navigates to bark: investigative reporting on corruption in Vietnam

Abstract

This study explores sources of influence on anti-corruption journalism in Vietnam and examines how investigative journalists navigate to commit to the truth and stay objective. Fifteen in-depth interviews with investigative journalists reveal that reporting about corruption in Vietnam involves questions of internal and external constraints that limit editorial autonomy and hinder the watchdog role of journalism. In their commitment to professional ideals, journalists often confront dissonances and limitations. The combined impact of political and economic fields on investigative journalism in Vietnamese journalism demonstrates how journalism, power, the market force, and society are interrelated. Amid such influences, journalists have to practice self-censorship in order to avoid political risks and deal with economic imperatives in the newsroom. Findings of the study corroborate previous assumptions drawn from literature regarding the constraints on journalists’ editorial autonomy in different social contexts, contributing to more holistic understandings of the effects of investigative journalism on public transparency and journalists’ role as scarecrows and watchdogs. The study also offers implications about the way authoritarian governments and their associated press systems sustain themselves.