The Qareeb Award and New Empowerment Projects… and a New Program from Gaza!
Have you applied for the Qareeb program’s annual award? If not, there’s still time until the end of February. Hurry and participate in the categories listed here, at this link, and in the details below:
Award Categories:
- Best Journalistic Coverage of Climate and Environmental Issues
- Best Journalistic Coverage of Women’s Rights that is Gender-Sensitive
- Best Journalistic Coverage of Socio-Economic Issues and Local Governance
- Best Youth Coverage by Youth (18-30 years old)
- Best Investigative Journalism on Corruption Affecting Marginalized Communities
- Participate in the award because your work deserves recognition, and also to be among the winners. We want to see you with us at the ceremony in Amman at the end of June to celebrate creative journalists and the approaching end of the Qareeb program.
The “Last Story” Platform Launches a New Program: Whispers
Despite the ongoing challenges facing Palestinian media, particularly in the Gaza Strip, which continues to suffer the repercussions of war, the partner platform “Last Story” continues to innovate its productions. Its latest program, “Whispers,” critically examines the lived reality of people in Gaza, including the fact that Gazans are buying their place in line to wait in long, uncertain queues at banks.
The Lebanese Journalists Syndicate and the New Media Law
Reforming the media law in Lebanon represents a pivotal moment after years of debate. The draft law, which is expected to be approved by Parliament, aims to modernize legislation, including abolishing prison sentences for publishing offenses, protecting digital journalism, strengthening the right of access to information and the confidentiality of sources, establishing an independent national media authority, and adopting a notification system instead of prior licensing. However, recently leaked proposals have raised concerns about the potential backtracking on these reforms. In this context, the Lebanese Journalists Syndicate is leading advocacy efforts to defend a modern law that protects freedom of expression and promotes transparency and accountability. In this context, the Qarib program supports the Union in a series of activities aimed at achieving this objective.
The first activity, scheduled to begin this February, is a national conference with members of the Lebanese Parliament and advocates for freedom of opinion and expression. The meeting will bring together members of the Media, Justice, and Human Rights committees, along with representatives from the media, civil society, and international partners. The conference will serve as a platform for direct dialogue on the draft law and the risks of regressive amendments. It aims to present the Union’s observations and the positions of its legal experts on the draft law. Through this activity, the Union seeks to strengthen parliamentary commitment to a transparent and participatory legislative process. It also aims to advocate for fundamental reforms, particularly the abolition of pretrial detention and the elimination of all defamation laws used to suppress freedoms. Other activities undertaken by the Union, supported by the Qarib program, include empowering journalists and media students at the Lebanese University by familiarizing them with the new law, its provisions regarding their rights, and how to practice journalism within its new framework. If adopted without amendment, this framework would provide ample space for freedom of expression.
AI Training in its Second Phase (QAIM)
The AI training program with Financial Times Strategies has entered an advanced phase by engaging in direct consultations with a number of close partners, tailored to their strategies and objectives. This allows them to leverage AI across various fields currently evolving in the field.
The consultation phase is based on a methodology developed by FT Strategies, which involves creating a three-year strategic plan to guide the team in achieving its goals.
The first phase concluded with a series of six advanced training sessions (masterclasses) held over six weeks. The initial sessions aimed to enhance fundamental knowledge of AI within the regional media landscape and generate interest in the consultancy program.
The sessions covered topics such as AI fundamentals, content production workflows, investigation and verification, access and discovery, personalization and engagement, and governance.
A market study of independent media in the Arab world, conducted by the Financial Times as part of the support program offered by Qareeb, revealed a gap in the processing of Arabic language content within the framework of artificial intelligence. This gap necessitates a hybrid approach combining human expertise and AI. Furthermore, the reliance of independent media on grants means that the application of AI depends more on human skills than on technology. Additionally, experiences indicate a need for collaborative frameworks, such as the Arab Network of Auditors.
Upcoming Empowerment Projects
In addition to AI, and as part of its efforts to support partners in developing their skills, the Qareeb program is preparing to launch three new training courses:
Investigative Journalism
Data and Information Journalism
Storytelling
A number of our colleagues from partner platforms will participate in the training, especially since this round of training was requested by several partners to address their developmental needs. This training and capacity-building support is part of a series of training courses that the Qareeb program has provided to our partners in four countries—Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq—over the past two years.
Sawt Media Platform and Data Storage Unification
As part of our recent support for independent media, we have finalized a project for the Sawt platform, aiming for operational sustainability. The project involves storing all data in a single cloud location, facilitating data analysis and the development of future strategies based on it.