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Investigative Journalists Tackle Taboo Subjects in Egypt
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Watch part one of Reeham El Sheikh's documentary (in Arabic) uncovering sexual harassment in Egyptian workplaces.
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Sexual harassment in the workplace, the state of mental health care facilities and the hardships in getting alimony from divorce settlements are some of the many topics covered during The Investigative Journalism Project, a training program for Egyptian journalists.
During this unique training program, 40 journalists received hands-on training to investigate, produce and disseminate reports on a variety of social issues in the region.
Ten Egyptian mentors and 30 Egyptian journalists participated in four-day training workshops in Amman, Jordan held by the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism organization. Following the workshops, the mentors met with each of their three journalist participants every two weeks for the duration of the program as well as kept in contact through emails and phone conversations when needed. Program manager Nadia El-Awady explained, “The traditional form of training in workshops is important. However, once trainees leave the workshop there is no way to assess whether they truly understood what was taught or if they were able to apply it. Mentoring fills this gap.”
An advisory board consisting of top Egyptian media executives and a legal team well versed in local media law supported the project and were instrumental to its success. Advisory board members included Ayman Al-Sayyad, editor-in-chief of Weghat Nazar (Points of View) magazine; Hesham Gaafar, editor-in-chief of IslamOnline.net; Khaled Salah, editor-in-chief of Youm Saba` (7th Day) newspaper; Yasmine Abdallah, chief executive officer of OTV satellite television channel; Magdy El-Gallad, editor-in-chief of Al-Masry Al-Youm (Egyptian Today) newspaper; and Hisham Kassem, an independent publisher.
Covering often-taboo topics, journalists learned how to ethically and legally produce in-depth reports. At the end of the program, the top investigative stories received awards in a formal ceremony. El-Awady said that the first-place story uncovered “medical waste from some hospitals in Cairo being illegally recycled into plastic [and finding] its way back into the market. The journalist, [Mona Iraqi] went undercover as a buyer…[and] won first prize in our competition that was independently judged by five renowned Egyptian journalists.”
Many of the reports were well received. Mahmoud Tamimi's "The Road to Khanka," investigating the state of mental hospitals in the region, aired on Egypt TV. It was so popular the network aired it again a few evenings later. Zeinab Abdelrazzak's report on the difficulty in getting alimony during divorce settlements will be featured in the Tokyo Film Festival.
The response from the local readers, viewers and other media organizations further proves the need for more investigative journalism in Egypt. El-Awady shares that “many journalists in the country have asked for this project to be repeated. To me, this is an indication that we’ve succeeded in creating interest and enthusiasm for a form of journalism that goes beyond the superficial day-to-day coverage that we currently find in our media.”
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