By Hani Hazaimeh

AMMAN – More than 100 Arab journalists took part in workshops on the first day of this year’s Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) conference, which began Friday and focuses on the impact of the Arab Spring on the future of the media.
According to organisers, ARIJ’s fourth annual conference aims to show participants how the Internet and computer technology can be useful tools in investigative journalism through 24 training sessions, which are being held with the participation of more than 350 experts and media activists from 22 countries.
Discussions on the opening day reflected participants’ fears of the Arab media failing to keep pace with the ongoing revolutions in the region due to the influence governments and businessmen in the region have on the press, according to a statement issued by the conference organisers.
Participants will have an opportunity to practise new techniques developed by ARIJ, such as using digital files that secure data and provide users with a safe environment in which to work without fear of being hacked, the statement added.
The workshops held during the conference, which concludes today, will also address the use of smartphones, social media and other new media tools that have played a significant role in documenting the Arab Spring, thereby increasing access to information and helping overcome the challenges facing the traditional media.
Moderating a session Friday, ARIJ Vice Chairman of Yosri Fouda outlined some of the challenges facing journalists in the aftermath of the revolutions.
“The Arab Spring imposed several challenges on the Arab media: security risks, excessive sensitivity of parties concerned, psychological challenges, high levels of competition, and romanticising the revolutions. Amidst all those challenges, journalists were struggling to maintain professionalism and nationalism,” he said.
However, Fouda added, the Arab revolutions also created opportunities, including breaches of psychological barriers to investigative journalism, a rapid increase in the availability of information and the number of news sources, and a growing public appetite for news as press freedom increases.
Veteran columnist and former minister of state for media affairs and communications Taher Odwan noted that “the heavy presence of journalists and the growing use of new forms of media such as Facebook and Twitter have led to intense competition with traditional media, and thus raised the ceiling of press freedom.
However, he expressed concern that the dominance of media by regimes and business interests could pose threats to both the media’s ability to deliver accurate content and its credibility in delivering its message freely and independently.
Other participants from Syria, Bahrain, and Libya also spoke about the media’s performance in their respective countries and the challenges they faced while covering the protest movements in their countries, the ensuring state crackdowns, and the consequences thereof.
ARIJ, a media support network promoting investigative journalism in nine Arab countries, will hold its fifth and sixth conferences in Tunisia and Egypt respectively, according to the statement.