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ARIJ

31 posts

News & Analysis

Coronel: A Golden Age of Global Muckraking at Hand

Ten years ago, when I first moved to New York and gave my first lecture at the Columbia Journalism School, I told students that I believe we are at the dawn of a Golden Age of global muckraking. They were a great class, but they didn’t believe me. But look at where we are now.

News & Analysis

Against the Odds, Investigative Journalism Persists in Middle East

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.

News & Analysis

Amid Crackdown, ARIJ Forum Reveals Hope in Arab Media

More than 320 journalists from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf met in Amman in early December for the 7th annual Forum for Arab investigative journalists, the largest ever. The ARIJ annual meeting has become the main networking forum for investigative journalists across the Arab world. In spite of an increasingly hostile media environment, many Arab journalists are still engaged in in-depth reporting, pushing against the narrowing borders of free reporting, and raising standards for documentation.

News & Analysis

The Plight of the Arab Press — Where’s the Reporting?

The majority of the Arab press — whether available in print or online — depends largely for their news on what national or international press agencies produce. The only real investment is placed in supporting columnists whose opinions and analysis reflect the particular editorial line of the publisher and the owners of that outlet. This disproportionate support for columnists rather than reporters can best be seen when you ask any follower of Arab media to name a particular news reporter or investigative journalist connected with a particular journal.

News & Analysis

Independent Journalism – Can It Survive in the Arab World?

The lights of free speech are being steadily extinguished across the Arab world, heralding a new era of ignorance, intolerance, and repression. Saddest of all, the majority of Arabs — who saw free speech as the only gain from the Arab Spring upheavals – now seem willing to accept the loss of this universal human right, in return for promises of stability and economic prosperity.

News & Analysis

Syria: Inside the World’s Deadliest Place for Journalists

What does it mean to be a professional journalist in a Syria fragmented by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, the interim Syrian government and Syrian Opposition Coalition groups, not to mention being under the mercy of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its likes. The straight answer is: “An assumed agent”, “traitor,” or “spy for the crusaders” and deserving death, whether the journalist is Arab or foreign.

News & Analysis

“Arab Media: The Battle for Independence” — 7th ARIJ Conference Comes to Amman

GIJN member Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) will host its seventh annual forum for Arab investigative journalists in Amman in December. The conference, whose theme is “Arab Media: The Battle for Independence,” will feature 30 + panels and trainings with speakers like Sy Hersh, Marwan Muashar, Tim Sebastian, and more.

News & Analysis

ARIJ Awards Showcase Gutsy Reporting Across Middle East

Amid media crackdowns, civil war, and social unrest, 350 journalists from Tunisia to Iraq gathered in Jordan earlier this month for the annual conference of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ). Despite arduous conditions across much of the Middle East and North Africa, the conference provided strong evidence that the region’s best journalists are continuing to fight the good fight — pushing hard against censorship and bringing world-class investigative reporting to the Arab world. The event, ARIJ’s sixth annual gathering, took place in Amman from December 6-8.

News & Analysis

Media’s Arab Spring Turns to Winter

Let me tell you how I think it will go from here. Free speech – always a lonely and sickly child in the Arab world – is already back in intensive care throughout the region.

Street protests will gradually die out. Dissenters will continue to be arrested and given harsh sentences. Sustained government propaganda will convince any waverers that political stability and economic prosperity are far more important than personal freedoms, rule of law, universal human rights, and democratic values.

Despite the wishful thinking of the crowds, the final chapter of the Arab Spring is being written: it is about over.