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The Role of Media in Improving Democratic Governance
After media exposés of injustice and abuse, a second component in the
governance process is an efficient and professional corps of civil servants.
These are individuals trained to efficiently fulfill their mandates, and
are honest and transparent in the use of their powers. These civil
servants acknowledge the value of ethical journalism, accept their own
deficiencies in service and seek real solutions to real problems.
In response to the investigations by Arbex and the
Tribuna de Minas
,
public officials acknowledged the existing failures and modified laws
having to do with the services provided to victims of sexual abuse; they
changed the system of services for mentally ill patients to ensure proper
treatment and punishment for misconduct; and the government created
school programs to help prevent drug addiction. In addition, 17 city
employees were fired for their involvement in a network of corruption
at the municipal level and the head of this dismantled network was
arrested and is currently serving time in jail.
The third component of this successful formula for good democratic
governance is civil society. In this case, throughout the exposés
and accusations of public wrongdoing – and the reactions of local
authorities – it was civil society that continued to support media outlets
and encouraged government to address the highlighted problems. The
local government was open in addressing the shortcomings exposed,
and this in turn increased civil society’s trust in government. All of this
came about as a product of Arbex’s investigations.
In a kind of domino effect the stories reported by Arbex encouraged
journalists Amanda Rossi, Fabio Oliva and Jamila Venturini to develop
a project to educate citizens to access and share information on public
expenditures in the city of Januaria, in the State of Minas Gerais. The
project was designed to promote citizen awareness of the allocation
of public resources as a way to prevent corruption in the municipal
government, which has had seven different mayors since 2004 as a
result of constant accusations of mismanagement of public funds.
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Skilled journalists who are well trained in investigative reporting,
