Being an investigative journalist in the Middle East and North Africa was immensely challenging in 2022, thanks to the dramatic decline in press freedom in places once considered safer for journalists such as North Africa, the lack of human and financial resources, and the inability to access data and public information in most Arab countries.
Some crucial stories have been uncovered by investigative journalists in the Arab world but they don’t get the attention – or the traction – they deserve. What they could use is some lessons in marketing.
Investigative reporting has never been a profitable business, especially when it relies on the support of governments or non-profit foundations. But now the funds are dwindling and costs are on the rise. Donors have new priorities, not least a global and intensifying refugee crisis and de-radicalization. However, Arab journalists fought to initiate free speech and honest reporting in the Arab region and continue to fight to maintain them, with no intention of giving up now.
In the past year, a group of Arab journalists has been working secretly in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen as part of a global network of investigative reporters mining the so called “Panama Papers.” They found that some Arab strongmen and their business partners are linked to offshore companies and bank accounts. What’s astonishing about this story is not that Arab dictators are going offshore to hide their wealth and evade sanctions. It’s that a community of Arab journalists is continuing to do investigative reporting in a region where there is increasingly little tolerance for accountability of any kind.
