By Thameen Kheetam
AMMAN - More than 200 Arab journalists are convening in Amman on Friday to discuss ways of enforcing quality in-depth journalism under the motto, “From Arabs to Arabs”.
Supported by the expertise of veteran international journalism professors, reporters and editors from 12 Arab countries are participating in the three-day conference, organised by the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) network.
Among the keynote speakers are Charles Lewis, executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop and founder of the Centre for Public Integrity in the US; South Africa’s Mondli Makhanya, chief editor of The Sunday Times; and former BBC "HardTalk" host Tim Sebastian.
The event will also feature presentations by 16 out of over 75 Arab journalists who have produced investigative reports through ARIJ on human rights, miscarriage of justice, sexual abuse and pollution, among other issues, in ARIJ’s eight countries of operation: Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain and Palestine.
Organisers voiced pride and satisfaction on what the network has achieved so far.
"Over the past four years, everyone involved in this ambitious project has worked hard to prepare the ground for investigative journalism in the region, where media freedom varies from one country to another," ARIJ Executive Director Rana Sabbagh-Gargour said in a statement sent to The Jordan Times.
"Today, ARIJ has an army of Arab journalists, coaches and trainers bent on spreading the practice of hard-core journalism to ensure greater transparency and public accountability under the motto, ‘From Arabs to Arabs’,” she added.
“The road lying ahead is filled with legal, professional, political and societal challenges, but the network is investing in the future,” Sabbagh-Gargour noted.
According to the Netherlands embassy in Amman, a silver sponsor of the conference, freedom of the press is a basic human right.
“The main reason for our embassy to sponsor this conference is to support the development of the quality of investigative journalism, thereby enhancing journalists’ capacities to analyse information presented to them more in-depth,” Dutch Ambassador to Jordan Joanna M. van Vliet told The Jordan Times.
During the conference, chief and managing editors from 12 Arab states will take part in a roundtable discussion on ways to encourage investigative journalism in their newsrooms, using a business model to manage projects with fewer people, resources, space and time.
The conference will also feature the official launch of ARIJ’s manual for investigative journalism.The UNESCO-supported guide, "A Story-Based Inquiry", is published in Arabic, English and French and available on www.arij.net.
Only five Arab countries out of 22 ranked among the top 100 in the 2008 Press Freedom Index of 173 countries compiled by Reporters Without Borders, according to the ARIJ statement.
Iraq, Syria and Palestine are among those countries that recorded low press freedom, with most of them moving down the ladder compared to their 2007 scores.
But there is always a chance for development, according to Lewis.
“I’m very excited about what is happening in this region of the world,” he told The Jordan Times in an interview on Thursday, noting that the expansion of news websites and new media during the past few years would make it more difficult to censor the press in the Middle East.
Despite the fact that “this part of the world is not famous for having an atmosphere of investigative reporting”, Lewis believes ARIJ will make a difference.
“I think it’s going to work… we are seeing signs of institutionalised activity.”
