“Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism” (ARIJ) held an online workshop “Pitching investigative story art” between 8 to 10 March.

ARIJ Director General Rawan Damen and member of editorial committee Hoda Osman trained more than 35 journalists from from 9 Arab countries: Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and Lebanon  on turning the investigative ideas into investigative proposals and pitch them to the most appropriate platform or broadcaster.

On the second day, Damen explained how to fill out the budget sheet of the story production and the common mistakes within creating it and how the journalists avoid any exaggeration within this process.

To underline the importance of the trailer, Damen said that it is still missing in the Arab journalists’ proposals, however, it is used widely in Europe as an interesting element which can attract the broadcaster.

The second part of the second day witnessed an interactive presentation of the participants’ pitches verbally and in a written way and the trainers commented on them.

On the third day, the trainers shined the lights on the rights and duties of the journalists before the presentence of media expert Khaled Trainy who evaluated the proposals.  At the end of the day, Hoda Osman explained how the participants can fill out the ARIJ form to produce a story.