About ARIJ

Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) is the first and leading media organisation in the MENA region, dedicated to promoting investigative journalism across the Arab world.

Based in Amman, ARIJ was founded in 2005 with the aim of supporting independent, quality and professional journalism, by offering training, media coaching, mentoring, funding and networking opportunities with local and international media outlets. 

ARIJ aims to support every Arab journalist with the ambition to advance in the field of Investigative Journalism.  

Mission

ARIJ’s mission is to leverage high-quality, fact-based “accountability journalism” to empower brave and committed Arab journalists to become society’s watchdogs; expanding and strengthening the investigative journalism ecosystem to ensure its sustainability in the region, which is essential to ensuring transparency, accountability and a diversity of views and opinions based on documented facts, research and multi-sources in free societies.

In essence, ARIJ aims to establish a deeply connected and collaborative ecosystem that empowers Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism.

We accomplish this by:

– Offering state-of-the art offline and online training from leaders in the field from around the world

– Empowering and supporting journalists in their work and development 

– Providing and facilitating networking opportunities through conferences, seminars, research institutes, academic centres and publishing platforms from across the globe. 

ARIJ’s Story and the Way Forward 

ARIJ is the brainchild of several leading Arab media professionals who came together with a group of like-minded Danes driven by commitment to promote professional in-depth reporting for the benefit of local communities. After several meetings in Copenhagen, Damascus, Beirut and Amman, the programme was kickstarted with funds from the Danish Parliament, disbursed through the Copenhagen-based International Media Support (IMS), and with technical support from the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism (FUJ).

Over the years, more donors joined and contributed to the growth of the ARIJ network. Some include: Open Society Foundations (OSF), UNESCO, the Washington-based International Centre for Journalism (ICFJ), The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Amman, the Embassy of Norway in Amman, L’Agence française de développement médias (CFI), the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), DW Akademie, DRL, OCCRP and others. As of October 2011, and to this day, SIDA is a key core donor. ARIJ’s coming 2021–2025 strategy will be reviewed by ARIJ’s donors and contributions will be made by its new donors. 

While ARIJ provides training on the basics of investigative journalism, in line with the ARIJ Manual “Story-Based Inquiry”, ARIJ also focuses on developing journalists’ specific skills. ARIJ training ranges from Advanced Writing and Accountability Journalism, to Interviewing Skills, Investigating Closed Political Groups, Information Extraction Techniques, Oil Contracts, Environmental Pollution, Gender and Human Rights, Advanced TV Production and Data Encryption.

In 2020 and beyond, ARIJ aims to expand its quality trainings, both offline and online, and to lead a deeply connected and collaborative ecosystem that further empowers Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism through training, media coaching, mentoring, logistical support, production, research assistance, and networking with publishing platforms, research centres and IJ centres around the world. 

After interest from various journalism and media university faculties, ARIJ developed an expanded version of its training manual “Story-based Inquiry”, to develop an accredited Investigative Journalism university course, complete with lecture notes, practical assignments, readings, links to relevant ARIJ investigations for each topic, and valuable annexes that contain open-source resources and notes on the legal environment for Investigative Journalism in each of the different Arab countries.

We continue to support Arab journalists by providing state-of-the-art training, and by helping transform courageous proposals into professional, innovative, high-quality and unique investigations.