- Title Page
- Introduction
- Paul Schaefer
- Schaefer and the Chilean Authorities
- CONTACTO
- Leads to Argentina
- Chivilcoy
- Is undercover justified?
- Digging In
- Hugo Placente
- Dangerous People
- The Second Trip—an Unmasking
- The Hidden Camera Dilemma
- Undercover in Chivilcoy
- Cops and Robbers?
- Doubts in Santiago
- La Solita
- A Breakthrough
- Nowhere to Turn?
Reporters or cops? CONTACTO and the search for Paul Schaefer
Abstract
CSJ-10-0027.0 This case, told mostly through video interviews with the news team, is about a news organization’s effort to locate Chile's most-wanted criminal, and whether its investigation is properly journalistic or verges on police matters. A Chilean news documentary program, CONTACTO, for more than a year sought—and eventually located—Chile’s most wanted person. Through 2004, CONTACTO team members traveled to and from Argentina in an effort to locate Paul Schaefer, the notorious founder of a colony where children were sexually abused and adults virtually enslaved for over 30 years. The news team grapples with multiple tough questions—whether to send in a reporter undercover, whether to allow him to use a hidden camera, and whether it has became too dangerous to allow him to continue the investigation. Editors also question the cost—repeated trips for a year with no promise of finding Schaefer is a large financial investment. Finally, once the reporter locates Schaefer, that raises the question of police involvement. If the team contacts police, at what level—local? National? International? How can the news team be sure it will be allowed to film an eventual arrest attempt, and if it is barred, how can it justify the year’s work?
In class discussion, students will explore the fine line between legitimate and illegitimate use of undercover techniques for reporting, including hidden cameras. They will explore whether such techniques are justified and, if so, when? They will also have a chance to weigh the costs of an investigative reporting project against its likely returns. They can examine the differences and similarities between journalistic and police work. When should a journalist summon the authorities? What price is a reporter prepared to pay to get a story? Does that include deceiving sources? Imperiling sources? Finally, students can debate whether CONTACTO’s behavior is culturally specific to Chile, or whether any news unit would have done the same.
This case can be used in a course on investigative journalism; editorial decisionmaking; or ethics.
Credits:
This case was edited and translated by Ruth Palmer, and researched and drafted by Julia Ioffe for the Knight Case Studies Initiative, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University. The videographer was Stephanie Ogden, and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) edited the video; CCNMTL project director was James R. Garfield. Martina Guzman translated the Spanish-language version. The faculty sponsor was Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor of Journalism John Dinges. Funding was provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. (0310)
For further information:
E-mail:
ccnmtl+casestudies@columbia.edu