ARIJ recognises Arab investigative journalists

AMMAN — Media representatives from Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan reaped awards of the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) 2014 for visual and print media investigations out of 29 reports submitted from nine Arab countries.

Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh distributed the awards at the closing ceremony of the seventh annual ARIJ forum on Sunday, according to a statement from the network. 

Mukhtar Ibrahim and Ahmad Hajj Hamdou shared the first-place award for their investigative report on networks that take over the real-estate of migrants and displaced people through forged documents. 

The second-place award went to a journalist from Iraq for her report on corruption and the use of political office. 

Hersh said Arab journalists live in difficult times, but noted that this era represents “a golden age” to build real journalism in the region. 

The US journalist, who has received several international awards for unravelling massacres and cases of torture, especially in Vietnam and Iraq, said a journalist’s goal is to look for facts, adding that 70 per cent of chief editors in his country are “cowards” who play along with the authority because money controls this industry.