News Highlights
Author:
Magda Abu-Fadil,
Director, Journalism Training Program,
Regional External Programs,
ma145@aub.edu.lb
 Journalism Training Program webpage
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AUB Journalism Training Program kicks off with workshop on investigative reporting
 | Abu-Fadil leads a session on investigative journalism
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An investigative journalism workshop aimed at promoting a culture of accountability and the role of news media as watchdogs grouped young reporters from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Jordan who kicked off a series of training courses at AUB.
" One of the things I learned when I attended a workshop years ago was a question that stayed with me: who cares?" said An Nahar senior writer Rajeh El Khoury of the need to keep readers' and viewers' interests in mind.
El Khoury, who led several of his paper's investigations, said journalists should write for the public, not for themselves, and should not be discouraged by constraints, particularly in restrictive Arab media environments.
" Our aim is to create awareness for the public," he added.
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 | An-Nahar columnist Rajeh Khoury tells reporters to write for the public not their own ego
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The July 23-27 workshop organized by AUB's newly-established Journalism Training Program (JTP) and funded by the Dutch Embassy in Lebanon introduced junior reporters to definitions of the genre, duties and responsibilities of investigative journalists, obstacles and legal limits to this type of reporting, ethics, ideas for reports and how to dig for information.
Participants watched the 1970s classic " All the President's Men" about the Watergate scandal, got tips from Assafir editor Zuheir Hawari on sourcing as well as guidance from Professor Nabil Dajani and JTP director and former veteran correspondent Magda Abu-Fadil.
In addition to sessions on note taking, interviewing, examination of complex documents and figures, and computer-assisted research, participants were tested on their general knowledge and assigned investigative projects of their choice that they are to complete within a month and publish or broadcast.
The reporters work for dailies Assafir, Al Balad, Asharq Al-Awsat, Al Hayat, Al Imarat al Youm, Al Shiraa magazine, Le Commerce du Levant magazine, Laha magazine, LBCI TV, Iraq's Al-Soumariya TV and Elaph news website.
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