Embedding with the U.S. military costs journalists credibility in the Middle East says Anthony Shadid, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.

Speaking at a luncheon organized by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the International Center for Journalists, Shadid also questioned other practices used by journalists after 9/11. He called for journalists to correct the record on stories now known to be lies. Shadid said that news organizations now owe readers “a more compelling reality.”



Shadid also joined a panel of journalists who worked on joint reporting projects designed to improve coverage of the Muslim world. The panelists included:

Ruth Eglash, a social affairs reporter at The Jerusalem Post, and Hani Hazaimeh, a senior reporter with The Jordan Times. They explored why hatred and prejudices continue to seethe more than 15 years after their countries signed a peace treaty. Together, they have written a piece called Why We Cannot Write This Story.


Kelly McEvers, lead Baghdad correspondent with the National Public Radio. She collaborated with Saudi reporter Asma Alsharif to explore how Saudi schools have changed after 9/11.

Jamila Trindle, a U.S. based reporter with Dow Jones Newswires. She teamed up with an Indonesian journalist Andreas Harsono to examine the persecution of the Ahmadi religious sect in Indonesia.

Moderator Joyce Barnathan, ICFJ’s president, emphasized the tremendous value of these collaborations. “We strongly believe that by teaming up journalists on these projects, we are paving the way for coverage that is more sophisticated, more insightful and more constructive than the knee-jerk political coverage that often dominates headlines.”


Over the past five years, ICFJ has run programs, many supported by Carnegie Corporation, that help to improve coverage of the Muslim world. In 2005, ICFJ brought two dozen Arab and U.S. journalists to Wisconsin to discuss how to improve reporting after 9/11. Two participants, an Arab and a U.S. journalist produced a manual on how to avoid stereotypes, loaded language and graphic images called Fighting Words – How Arab and American Journalists Can Break Through to Better Coverage. It was distributed in English and Arabic to newsrooms and journalism schools throughout the U.S. and Middle East.

In 2008, Carnegie Corporation supported an ICFJ conference in Istanbul, Turkey, called “Faith in Media: Improving Coverage of Islam and Other Religions.” In attendance were 20 reporters, producers and editors from 10 countries, from Fox News to the Muslim Brotherhood. The moderator was Anthony Shadid. Four pairs of journalists then embarked on joint reporting projects in Muslim countries and in the United States.


Last March, ICFJ brought together journalists from the Western and Muslim worlds for a conference in Alexandria, Egypt, called Freedom of Expression in the Digital Age. The initiative was funded by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. ICFJ offered a six-week online course on that topic—and then selected the best participants to go to Alexandria. This led to robust and often passionate discussions. ICFJ also offered workshops to Pakistani and Indonesian journalists—and selected the best ones to attend the conference.


At the conference, the participants heard from a variety of experts and also received hands-on training in new technology and in opinion writing. All participants teamed up for joint-reporting projects. ICFJ held a competition for the best project and the winning team—Ruth Eglash of Israel and Hani Hazaimeh of Jordan--participated in the panel.