Amman, November 2, 2015 – The 8th annual forum for Arab investigative journalists will open in Amman on Dec. 4, bringing over 30 panels and trainings on personal safety of reporters in conflict zones, off-shore money fraud, advanced writing skills and verification of user generated content.

More than 250 Arab journalists, editors and media academics will attend the three-day conference held under the theme, “Arab Media: Surviving Under Censorship” amid a growing crackdown on free speech and worsening media polarization and editorial manipulation five years after winds of change began blowing across the region.

The annual event is organized by the Amman-based Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), the region’s leading media organization promoting in-depth reporting based on facts and evidence in favor of accountability and rule of law since 2005.

“The regional forum is taking place in Amman despite the clear retraction on press freedoms” says ARIJ Chairman Daoud Kuttab. “Despite the increase in pre and post censorship we are committed to training and applying the highest professional standards in our print and video investigations which are aimed at uncovering secrets and holding those responsible accountable”.

Sheila Coronel, Director of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at the prestigious Columbia University in New York, and award-winning investigative journalist, author and editor of a dozen books, is the keynote speaker at the first plenary session entitled; “Investigating corruption under censorship”.

Coronel, who was one of the most tenacious reporters in the Philippines transition from dictatorship to democracy and won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, will tell ARIJEANS why it is important to continue their mission and to take on wrong-doers.

“Investigative journalists are a weird mix of cynics and optimists. We know things are going wrong. What motivates us is a sense that the wrongs have to be exposed, and that by exposing them, they can be changed” she says in a pre-meeting note.

Speakers at the second plenary sessions on “Entrepreneurial Journalism; East meets West” are David Schraven, founder of Berlin-based Correctiv, a nonprofit investigative newsroom in the German-speaking world, Cairo-based Lina Attalah, Chief Editor of “Mada Masr”, and Malek Khadraoui, Chief Editor of the Tunis-based inkifada”.

Five leading journalist and specialists in media ethics from across the region will discuss the future of investigative journalism in the Arab world. They are: Yahia Shukkeir (Jordan), independent journalists and media law expert, Hamza Belloumi, presenter of Hiwar Tunis’ flagship political TV talk show “Eight PM” , Ghassan Al Shehabi, ARIJ’s coach in Bahrain, Hazem Ameen, ARIJ’s coach in Lebanon and head of features pages at the pan-Arab daily “Al-Hayat” and Amr Kahky, Chief Editor, AnNahar TV (Egypt).

In a hands-on workshop, Yosri Fouda, the pioneer of Arab investigative journalism who had to stop his primetime show on OnTv (Egypt) last year as media freedoms deteriorated, will train ARIJEANS how to prepare for “accountability” interviews.

ARIJ-trained journalists who have produced over 280 hard-hitting print, radio and TV investigations in ARIJ’s nine countries of operation will share working methodologies and discuss political, legal, professional, societal and religious challenges impeding the spread of investigative journalism in the Arab media.

They will exchange tools of the trade with some of the world’s award-winning journalists like Gavin Sheridan and Christoph Koettl who contributed to a new handbook on verification of user-generated content for investigative journalist under the European Center for Journalists, Joel Whittaker, key trainer at the London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI), and Ralf Anderssen, and Denmark’s top trainer on powerful video narrative. Other trainers are Julian Sher, award-winning journalist, book author and senior producer for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s premier investigative program “the fifth estate”, Reginald Chia, Executive Editor, Editorial Operations, Data & Innovation at Thomson Reuters in New York, Dr. Mark Hunter, author of the world-acclaimed ARIJ Manual “Story-based Inquiry” and Norway’s Runa Sandvik, a leading digital security and online safety expert, and others.

Other sessions will focus on difficulties of investigating in ISIS-controlled areas in Iraq and Syria, in war-torn Yemen and elsewhere.

On the sidelines of the conference, ARIJ is holding three specialized workshops: safety of journalists in hostile environments; advanced writing skills for ARIJ coaches; and a workshop for regional TV and film producers working with ARIJ.

The conference ends with a gala dinner to honor 2015 ARIJ investigations featuring gutsy undercover work, dogged tracking of corruption, and careful documentation of pollution and health problems.

ARIJ has trained 1642 journalists and nearly 100 media professors in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Bahrain and Tunisia. It has also supported the creation of several investigative units at established media houses in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia. Several Arab media faculties are using its manual in Arabic for teaching a three-credit hour investigative journalism course to undergraduate students.

ARIJ is funded by the Copenhagen-based International Media Support, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and the Norwegian Embassy in Amman, and Open Society Foundation (OSF).