Five new partners joined the Qarib project this month in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. The new partners are Daraj Media, a platform based in Lebanon; Hibr, a platform operating in Jordan; Nuqta, a women’s lab also in Lebanon; Shareeka Wa Lakin, another Lebanese platform; and Khat30. These platforms have launched their productions, joining the existing seventeen Iraqi platforms spread across the north, south, and center of the country, along with sixteen platforms in Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
The Qarib team discussed the challenges facing independent platforms, including the security situation, the ongoing war in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and the associated difficulties. They also addressed the challenges of funding and the use of artificial intelligence in journalism during a full-day event organized at the French Cultural Center in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
This year, the Qarib program also announced grants for journalists from Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq, enabling them to travel to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to cover the 29th Climate Summit, known as COP 29.
Anyone interested in covering this summit should apply for the grant and review the associated conditions via this link.
The application period for the Qarib Journalism Award for 2024 is open until the end of August. The Qarib Award aims to promote journalism that tackles issues often overlooked by the media, focusing on marginalized groups, environmental issues, as well as youth and women’s affairs.
As for our partners’ productions, this month was both diverse and rich in terms of the topics covered and the journalistic formats used.
While attention is primarily focused on the developments in Gaza, our partners in Palestine are also covering events in the West Bank. One such report from the Palestine News Network features a farmer who is facing continuous attacks by settlers, including the spraying of pesticides on his fruit trees, leading to significant damage.
The “Latest Story” platform, operating out of Gaza, continued to document the war’s developments and its impact on the people of Gaza, sharing the actual tragedies experienced by families. One such story is that of Samia, a girl who lived a quiet, normal life with her family until the war broke out. The conflict took her entire family, and she recounts how she heard her sister and mother dying, narrowly escaping death herself.
In Lebanon, the Manatiq platform reported from the town of Rmeish, located on the border with Israel, on the persistence of tobacco cultivation despite bombings and displacement.
The Palestine News Network also highlighted an initiative by three girls displaced within Gaza who started making handicrafts from beads to earn a living.
In Jordan, with the legislative elections approaching, the Aramram platform, as part of the Qarib project, chose to shed light on various youth issues, including the limited political participation of young people in the country.
Al-Mirbad Radio featured an illustrated and written report discussing the significance of a reading competition that requires participants to read 50 books across various fields of science and knowledge.