How I named, shamed and jailed

Journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas has broken dozens of stories of corruption and organized crime all over Ghana -- without ever revealing his identity. In this talk (in which his face remains hidden) Anas shows grisly footage from some of his investigations and demonstrates the importance of facing injustice.

I am sorry I cannot show you my face,

because if I do, the bad guys will come for me.

My journey started 14 years ago.

I was a young reporter. I had just come out of college.

Then I got a scoop.

The scoop was quite a very simple story.

Police officers were taking bribes

from hawkers who were hawking on the streets.

As a young reporter, I thought that I should do it

in a different way, so that it has a maximum impact,

since everybody knew that it was happening,

and yet there was nothing that was keeping it out of the system.

So I decided to go there

and act as a seller.

As part of selling, I was able to document

the hard core evidence.

The impact was great.

It was fantastic.

This was what many call immersion journalism,

or undercover journalism.

I am an undercover journalist.

My journalism is hinged on three basic principles:

naming, shaming and jailing.

Journalism is about results.

It's about affecting your community or your society

in the most progressive way.

I have worked on this for over 14 years,

and I can tell you, the results are very good.

One story that comes to mind

in my undercover pieces

is "Spirit Child."

It was about children who were born with deformities,

and their parents felt that once they were born

with those deformities,

they were not good enough to live in the society,

so they were given some concoction to take

and as a result they died.

So I built a prosthetic baby,

and I went into the village,

pretended as though this baby had been born

with a deformity, and here was the guys who do the killing.

They got themselves ready.

In their bids to kill, I got the police on standby,

and they came that fateful morning

to come and kill the child.

I recall how they were seriously boiling the concoction.

They put it on fire. It was boiling hot,

getting ready to give to the kids.

Whilst this was going on, the police I had alerted,

they were on standby,

and just as the concoction was ready,

and they were about to give it to the kids,

I phoned the police,

and fortunately they came and busted them.

As I speak now, they are before the courts.

Don't forget the key principles:

naming, shaming and jailing.

The court process is taking place,

and I'm very sure at the end of the day

we will find them, and we will put them

where they belong too.

Another key story that comes to mind,

which relates to this spirit child phenomenon,

is "The Spell of the Albinos."

I'm sure most of you may have heard, in Tanzania,

children who are born with albinism

are sometimes considered as being unfit

to live in society.

Their bodies are chopped up with machetes

and are supposed to be used for some concoctions

or some potions for people to get money --

or so many, many stories people would tell about it.

It was time to go undercover again.

So I went undercover as a man who was interested

in this particular business, of course.

Again, a prosthetic arm was built.

For the first time, I filmed on hidden camera

the guys who do this, and they were ready to buy the arm

and they were ready to use it to prepare

those potions for people.

I am glad today the Tanzanian government has taken action,

but the key issue is that the Tanzanian government

could only take action because the evidence was available.

My journalism is about hard core evidence.

If I say you have stolen, I show you the evidence

that you have stolen.

I show you how you stole it

and when, or what you used

what you had stolen to do.

What is the essence of journalism if it doesn't benefit society?

My kind of journalism is a product

of my society.

I know that sometimes

people have their own criticisms

about undercover journalism.

(Video) Official: He brought out some money from his pockets

and put it on the table,

so that we should not be afraid.

He wants to bring the cocoa and send it to Cote d'Ivoire.

So with my hidden intention, I kept quiet.

I didn't utter a word.

But my colleagues didn't know.

So after collecting the money,

when he left, we were waiting for him to bring the goods.

Immediately after he left, I told my colleagues that

since I was the leader of the group,

I told my colleagues that if they come,

we will arrest them.

Second official: I don't even know the place called [unclear].

I've never stepped there before.

So I'm surprised.

You see a hand counting money just in front of me.

The next moment, you see the money in my hands,

counting, whereas I have not come into contact with anybody.

I have not done any business with anybody.

Reporter: When Metro News contacted investigative reporter

Anas Aremeyaw Anas for his reaction,

he just smiled and gave this video extract

he did not use in the documentary recently shown onscreen.

The officer who earlier denied involvement

pecks a calculator to compute the amount of money

they will charge on the cocoa to be smuggled.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas: This was another story on anticorruption.

And here was him, denying.

But you see, when you have the hard core evidence,

you are able to affect society.

Sometimes these are some of the headlines that come. (Music)

[I will curse Anas to death]

[Anas Lies]

[Alarm Blows Over Anas' News for Cash Video]

[Agenda Against Top CEPS Officials Exposed]

[Anas Operates with Invisible Powers?]

[Gov't Wobbles Over Anas Video]

[Hunting the Hunter]

[Anas 'Bribe' Men in Court]

[15 Heads Roll Over Anas Tape]

[Finance Minister Backs Anas]

[11 Given Queries Over Anas' Story]

[GJA Stands By Anas]

[Prez. Mills Storms Tema Harbour Over Anas Video]

["Late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills: Former president of Ghana"]

John Evans Atta Mills: What Anas says

is not something which is unknown to many of us,

but please, those of you who are agents,

and who are leading the customs officers into temptation,

I'm telling you, Ghana is not going to say

any good things to you about this.

AAA: That was my president.

I thought that I couldn't come here

without giving you something special.

I have a piece, and I'm excited that

I'm sharing it for the first time with you here.

I have been undercover in the prisons.

I have been there for a long time.

And I can tell you, what I saw is not nice.

But again, I can only affect society

and affect government if I bring out the hard core evidence.

Many times, the prison authorities have denied

ever having issues of drug abuse,

issues of sodomy, so many issues they would deny

that it ever happens.

How can you obtain the hard core evidence?

So I was in the prison. ["Nsawan Prison"]

Now, what you are seeing is a pile of dead bodies.

Now, I happen to have followed one of my inmates,

one of my friends, from his sick bed till death,

and I can tell you it was not a nice thing at all.

There were issues of bad food being served

as I recall that some of the food I ate

is just not good for a human being.

Toilet facilities: very bad.

I mean, you had to queue to get proper toilets to attend --

and that's what I call proper,

when four of us are on a manhole.

It is something that if you narrate it to somebody,

the person wouldn't believe it.

The only way that you can let the person believe

is when you show hard core evidence.

Of course, drugs were abundant.

It was easier to get cannabis, heroin and cocaine,

faster even, in the prison than outside the prison.

Evil in the society is an extreme disease.

If you have extreme diseases,

you need to get extreme remedies.

My kind of journalism might not fit in other continents

or other countries,

but I can tell you, it works in my part of the continent

of Africa, because usually, when people talk

about corruption, they ask, "Where is the evidence?

Show me the evidence."

I say, "This is the evidence."

And that has aided in me putting a lot of people behind bars.

You see, we on the continent are able

to tell the story better because we face the conditions

and we see the conditions.

That is why I was particularly excited

when we launched our "Africa Investigates" series

where we investigated a lot of African countries.

As a result of the success of the "Africa Investigates" series,

we are moving on to World Investigates.

By the end of it, a lot more bad guys

on our continent will be put behind bars.

This will not stop.

I'm going to carry on with this kind of journalism,

because I know that when evil men destroy,

good men must build and bind.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

Chris Anderson: Thank you. Thank you.

I have some questions for you.

How did you end up in jail? This was just a few weeks ago, I believe, yeah?

AAA: Sure. You know, undercover is all about

setting the priorities right, so we got people

to take me to court.

So I went through the very legal process,

because at the end of the day, the prison authorities

want to check whether indeed you have been there or not,

and that's how I got in there.

CA: So someone sued you in court,

and they took you there, and you were in remand custody

for part of it, and you did that deliberately.

AAA: Yes, yes.

CA: Talk to me just about fear

and how you manage that,

because you're regularly putting your life at risk.

How do you do that?

AAA: You see, undercover is always a last resort.

Before we go undercover, we follow the rules.

And I'm only comfortable and I'm purged of fear

whenever I am sure that all the steps

have been taken. I don't do it alone. I have a backup team

who help ensure that the safety and all the systems

are put in place, but you've got to take

very intelligent decisions whenever they are happening.

If you don't, you will end up losing your life.

So yes, when the backup systems are put in place,

I'm okay, I go in. Risky, yes,

but it's a hazard of a profession.

I mean, everybody has their hazard.

And once you say that is yours,

you've got to take it, as and when it comes.

CA: Well, you're an amazing human and you've done amazing work

and you've taught us a story

like no story I think any of us have heard before.

And we're appreciative. We salute you. Thank you so much, Anas.

AAA: Thank you.

CA: Thank you. Stay safe. (Applause)