Arab Investigative journalists hold 3rd annual conference in Amman Nov. 26-28

17. september 2010 17:13

Event Date:
Fri, 2010-11-26 00 – Sun, 2010-11-28 00
Amman –Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), the region’s first and only media network supporting in-depth reporting, is organizing the third regional conference for investigative journalists in Amman, November 26-28, 2010.

Over 200 Arab journalists, editors and university academics from 16 Arab countries, including those benefitting from the network in the eight ARIJ countries of operation — Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and Syria, will attend.

They will share their experiences with top Arab and international award-winning journalists like Morocco’s Ahmed Reda Benchamsi, founder and publisher of the independent liberal weekly magazines “TelQuel” and “Nichane” as well as Egypt’s renowned newspaper publisher and democracy activist Hisham Qassem and Yosri Fouda, the Arab world’s top TV investigative journalist who launched al_Jazeera’s famous program “Top Secret” before becoming the chief editor and presenter of “The Last Word” on the Cairo-based ONTV.

Other speakers and trainers include: Dr. Mark Hunter (USA) principal author and editor of the ARIJ manual, Tim Sebastian (UK), chairman of the “Doha Debates” former presenter of BBC’s “Hardtalk”, Drew Sullivan (USA) director for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Centre, Paul Radu (Romania) author of follow the money: A digital file for tracking corruption, Fredrik Laurin and Lina Makboul (Sweden), Justin Arenstein (South Africa), Miki Mistrati (Denmark) and Dumitru Lazur (Moldavia).

The conference, sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), is an ARIJ initiative to improve both the standards of hard-core investigations that promote accountability and transparency for the benefit of the public and to foster cross-border networking.

“SIDA is very happy to work with ARIJ in support of this conference,” said Fredrik Uggla, First Secretary at the Swedish Embassy in Egypt and Regional Programme Manager for Development Cooperation, SIDA.

“The Government of Sweden has recently adopted a new strategy for development cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa. That document recognizes the crucial importance of freedom of expression and media in constructing democratic societies which respect the human rights of their citizens, and we are certain that this event will make an important contribution to these goals.”

Many of the over 100 ARIJ fellow journalists who have completed ground-breaking investigations with support from the network, will share their pre and post-publication experiences at various breakaway panels and training workshops.

The conference will also offer training sessions on Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR) tools, using special Arabic software adapted by ARIJ, which has just launched the first CAR manual for the Arab world after its successful launch of its 2009 manual “A story-based hypothesis”.

The conference will conclude with a roundtable of university professors from Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria and Morocco in a bid to promote the ARIJ manual among students majoring in media and communication arts.

At a gala dinner on Nov. 27, Jordanian Senate Speaker Taher Al Masri, will hand out the Seymour Hersh award — a new prize for investigative reporting that has made a positive impact on 11 Arab communities. The award will be given to print, radio and television journalists. It is organized by ARIJ and the Washington-based International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ), which is helping ARIJ set up six investigative reporting units at existing media in Jordan, Palestine and Egypt.

The conference will be held at the Landmark Hotel in Amman. For further information please contact conference coordinator Rosette Faraj (rosette@arij.net)