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Top American investigative journalist Mark Lee Hunter, who is visiting Malaysia this week, will share his experience and expertise at a public forum on Saturday.

Titled ‘Powerful voices: Strengthening democracy through investigative journalism’, the forum promises to explore the obstacles to good journalism in Malaysia, where the media has often been seen as controlled by the authorities.

The public forum - to be held at Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) from 10.30am to 12.30pm on May 10 - is organised by Nottingham University Malaysia together with news portal Malaysiakini and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa).

The forum organisers believe that great journalism is especially relevant in today's democratic societies to hold people in power accountable and prevent nations from plunging into catastrophe.

"But this kind of journalism does not emerge out of thin air - it requires time, resources, independence, and access to information. Without these, the news we read merely fills a hole or becomes the tool of the already powerful," said the organisers.

"Before you ‘lepak’ (relax) with the weekend’s news, join us to find out more about what helps investigative journalism happen, what gets in its way, and what producing it involves."

Manual for investigative journalists

Keynote speaker Hunter is currently an adjunct professor and senior research fellow based at France's Insead, one of the world's leading business schools.

He has authored or co-authored some 200 investigative reports for publications including The New York Times Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Le Figaro, and the Harvard Business Review.

Hunter (right) is the only person to have won awards for both research into journalism and investigative reporting from Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc, the world’s leading organisation in the field, and is a co-founder of the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

He produced a manual for investigative reporters in 2009 called ‘Story-Based Inquiry’.

After Hunter's keynote address, a panel of experts will discuss a number of key media issues. It will try to answer the likelihood of Malaysia becoming one of the "world's best democracies" without a healthy culture of good journalism.

The panelists include Malaysiakini's editor-in-chief Steven Gan, Seapa's executive director Gayathry Venkiteswaran and Professor Zaharom Nain, the vice-dean (research) from Nottingham University's faculty of arts and social science.