ARIJ launches investigative reporting manual at conference

Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) hosts its second regional conference Nov. 20 through 22 in Amman. Presented in Arabic, English and French, with simultaneous translation, the conference will offer training sessions in investigating climate change, tracking corruption, advanced writing and interviewing techniques, conducting investigations with limited resources and without freedom of information laws, and a computer-assisted reporting  workshop using special Arabic software adapted by ARIJ. The conference opens with ARIJ and UNESCO’s formal launch of ARIJ’s investigative reporting manual, “Story-Based Inquiry,” and culminates with an awards banquet. Last year’s ARIJ conference drew 220 delegates.

Among the featured speakers and trainers at this year’s conference are:

— Charles Lewis, former producer for the CBS News program 60 Minutes, now professor and founding executive editor of the new Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C., and president of the Fund for Independence in Journalism at the Center for Public Integrity.
— Tim Sebastian, author of eight novels and two non-fiction books, former presenter of the BBC’s HARDtalk, and now chairman of Doha Debates, a forum for free speech in Qatar broadcast monthly on BBC World.
— Mondli Makhanya, Editor-in-chief of South Africa’s most widely-read weekly newspaper, the Sunday Times.
— Paul Cristian Radu, award-winning investigative reporter, currently a Knight fellow at Stanford University in California, and co-founder of the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism.
— Mark Lee Hunter, veteran investigative journalist and principal author and editor of the ARIJ manual
— Yosri Fouda, formerly of the Arab World, now chief editor and presenter of “The Last Word” on Egypt’s independent ON TV.

ARIJ is an independent, non-profit regional network whose sole aim is to nurture a culture of investigative journalism among and by Arab media professionals and activists for the benefit of the Arab public. ARIJ supports independent quality professional journalism by funding in-depth projects, providing coaching, and maintaining a support structure for reporters and editors in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Palestine and Iraq.

ARIJ is funded by the Danish Parliament, and was established by the Copenhagen-based International Media Support and the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism.