The early years of the twenty-first century may have brought a renewed global impetus to investigative journalism’s concern with human rights. Founded in normative views of journalism as a social watchdog, and the specificities of its investigative turn as combative and challenging, investigative journalism has been intimately connected with the recognition, promotion and protection of human rights over more than two centuries. The waxing of investigative journalism appears to occur when social disruption coincides with enhanced communication capabilities – from the early throes of modernisation to current processes of democratisation, globalisation and digitisation. Investigative journalism acts as a form of social conscience, exposing lapses in a commitment to human rights. At the same time, investigative journalism lays claim to its own right to freedom of expression
