New Media & Press Freedom in the Arab World

Q&A with Advisory Board Member

General Manager at the Community Media Network, Amman and Founder of AmmanNet, Amman, Jordan, the Arab world’s first internet radio station.
He’s an IPI member and an IPI World Press Freedom Hero, and is extremely tuned in to press freedom and media landscapes across the Middle East.

1. What are the challenges faced by the new media in terms of press freedom in the Arab world?

New media in the Arab world face a number of challenges both internal and external. Internally they face a challenge from traditional media and media syndicates that still don't recognise non-traditional media as belonging to their own self-declared exclusive club of journalists. Externally they face angry governments who use regular powers as well as unorthodox means to pressure, divert and at times stop new media practitioners - including the use of violence, all the way to assasinations.

2. How would you describe an innovative media project?

Any innovative media project requires an attempt to bridge the gap between a public that is sceptical of media and the tremendous desire by the same public for accurate and quick information.

3. In your opinion, how do initiatives like the IPI News Innovation Contest promote the development of new media and strengthening of journalism?

The fact that the challenge is coming from a reputable international media organisation known to have close ties to editors and publishers of traditional media will help attempts to fulfil the general public's desire to have quick, yet original and authentic information and analysis delivered in a variety of outlets.

DAOUD KUTTAB

Founder, AmmanNet, Amman, Jordan

Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist, producer and media activist as well as a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University from 2007 to 2008. While at Princeton, he taught a seminar on new media in the Arab world. Born in Jerusalem in 1955, Kuttab studied in the United States and began his career in journalism at the defunct English-language weekly, Al-Fajr, as a reporter, features editor, and managing editor from 1980 to 1987. After leaving Al-Fajr, he worked as a reporter and columnist for the Arabic-language East Jerusalem daily, Al-Quds. In addition to Al-Fajr and Al-Quds, Kuttab worked for other Arabic print press before moving to the audio visual field.

He established and presided over the Jerusalem Film Institute in the 1990s. In 1995, he helped establish the Arabic Media Internet Network (AMIN), in order to provide censorship-free, Arab-language news to media organisations in the Middle East. In 1996, he established and headed the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University, a position he held until January 2008 when he resigned to focus on the Community Media Network, an Arab media NGO registered in Jordan and Palestine. In 1997 he partially moved to Amman for personal reasons and in 2000, established the Arab world’s first internet radio station AmmanNet. Kuttab is active in media freedom efforts in the Middle East.

The Community Media Network includes Radio al Balad, a community radio station broadcasting on 92.4 FM in Amman, Jordan, AmmanNet.net and PEN Media, a media NGO that has been contracted to produce 52 new episodes of Shara’a Simsim, the Palestinian version of Sesame Street.