DEAD SEA — Before the forum for investigative journalists concluded, three award-winning Arab reporters on Sunday said persistence, self-confidence and abiding by the profession’s ethics were the keys to their success.

 

The three were speaking at the 11th Annual Forum for Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), which was held at the Dead Sea Convention Centre.

 

“I believe that every reporter who chooses to work under tough conditions and enjoys self-confidence is a successful and important journalist,” said award-winning Iraqi journalist, Asaad Zalzalee.

 

Zalzalee won the Samir Kassir Award for Press Freedom in 2017 for stories exposing how corruption in contracts to private and public companies in Iraq had blocked access to schools for thousands of children.

 

 “We also we need to be vigilant and aware of our surroundings and, at the same time, believe in ourselves and that our story will make a difference for the society we are living in,” Zalzalee told the gathering.

 

“I was at the barber getting a haircut in Iraq when I heard him talk to someone about a girl who had sold her kidney, and I immediately followed up on the information and did my first investigative reporting piece,” Zalzalee explained.

 

 Jordanian journalist Hanan Khandakji, who currently works for AlMamlaka TV and has won several Arab and international awards, added that “I did an important investigative report for a local entity about the unsafe treatment of radioactive rays, which endangered an area in Jordan but none of the relevant officials took action”.

 

But when another investigative report she did on privately-run centres physically abusing severely disabled children won the attention of international media outlets, government entities and high-level officials immediately intervened to solve the problem.

 

Egyptian journalist Saada Abdelkader, an ARIJ fellow who has received more than 10 regional and global awards for his TV and written investigative journalism, said patience and persistence were the two keys to success.

 

It is also extremely important to honour the ethics of the profession and abide by the necessary steps to “write an investigative piece that supports the cause you are after,” Abdelkader added.

 

ARIJ’s Executive Director Rana Sabbagh added, at the end of the panel discussion, that her organisation strived to provide reporters with the resources to submit work in accordance with the profession’s ethics. However, she said, “we also care about their well-being”.

 

The ARIJ executive director acknowledged that some investigative reporting “could cause trauma or distress for some reporters”.

 

That is why, Sabbagh added, “we urge journalists who are suffering from trauma or mental repercussions as a result of the topics they are covering, to enrol in our online courses so that we can provide them with the necessary support”.