Following appeared in The Jordan Times

By Daoud Kuttab

Maghdis was living in the US when the Qadhafi regime fell in Libya. A linguist by profession, Maghdis had established an NGO to help his community of Imazighen.

Muammar Qadhafi had banned his people from using their language. With Qadhafi gone, Maghdis decided to return to the white mountains south of Tripoli to establish a local community radio station that will broadcast in the ethnic Imazighen language.

In the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the Sakkafs have been putting out a quality English language newspaper, The Yemen Times. Then the revolution provided a unique opportunity. The children of the late Abdel Aziz Sakkaf, whose exposés on torture in Yemen is suspected to have got him killed — the incident is still unresolved — wanted to start an independent Arabic language radio station. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Amazing what a difference a year can make. Last year we met in Tunis and signed agreements with young activists in various countries to do what seemed the impossible. Defy the logic that has prevailed in the Arab world namely that it is easier to change governments and bring down dictators than it is to change a media regulatory system.

But in one year we are seeing ordinary people regain their voice, sit behind microphones, answer phones of their own public and broadcast whatever their own local communities wanted to hear and talk about.

It wasn’t easy, it took courage, strong will and an unshakable belief in the simple right that is expressed in the 19^th article of the Universal declaration of Human rights- Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

February 13^th has been declared by the United Nations Education and Science Organisation (UNESCO) as World Radio Day. In addition to traditional public statements and protocol activities there are some concrete things that can be done to help make the world a better place to live in with help of radio.

Radio is a fabulous media, an instrument that allows people to communicate. It allows people to communicate without paying for it. Not every one can afford to buy a newspaper or even have it accessible in their village. Not only is radio free (except for the battery costs) and accessible, the information transmittedby radio can be understood by all citizens rich or poor,learned or ignorant, Even those who are unable to read and write (including those with seeing incapabilities and persons who are illiterate can enjoy radio. Continue Reading »

following appeared in today’s Jordan Times

For Investigative Journalism

by Daoud Kuttab

In celebrating the successful investigative journalism feat carried out recently in private centres that house children with disabilities in Jordan, King Abdullah hosted at the Royal Palace two women Jordanian journalists who are involved in investigative journalism.

The meeting reveals much about what is needed for investigative journalism to get a major push in Jordan.

In welcoming Radio Al Balad’s Hanan Khandakji and Jordan TV’s Suha Karaja, King Abdullah praised the courage of the young journalists. The Jordan news agency, Petra, quoted His Majesty as saying, correctly, that investigative journalism is an important tool for monitoring and accountability. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Palestinians took advantage of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated cities and the transitional period to capture their airwaves and provide local communities with radio and television programs.

At times, some of the young entrepreneurs involved in this were forced to buy used transmitters from the Israeli black market. Most were used by Israeli army units that had been replaced by newer models. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

In the summer of 1996, I was excited to hear the good news. The Palestinian Ministry of Information had agreed to a request to grant us a license for an educational television station to broadcast in Ramallah. With little funding and tremendous passion we began building up the station with trained staff, equipment and production capacity.

Having grown up in the U.S., I tried to run the new Palestinian station as a hybrid between PBS and C-Span. In April 1997 we launched the first season ever of Shara’a Simsim, the Palestinian version of Sesame Street. It was a humble production with 20 15-minute episodes, but for us it was huge. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Did the independent media help produce the Arab Spring or did the revolutions succeed in liberating local media in the Arab world? This and many other questions were debated and discussed by Arab and international freedom of expression advocates and media practitioners and experts in Amman this week.

The Arab Spring was the buzzword in two consecutive international media conferences: Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) held its fourth annual conference where Arab investigative journalists met with fellow professionals from around the world. The ARIJ conference opened with a powerful keynote speech by Yosri Fouda, a former Al Jazeera investigator who has been running a TV talk show that was active in the Egyptian revolution. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Suleiman al Kabaili sits in an office that has clearly been rearranged to convert it into a makeshift studio. The wall behind the desk has a naked nail that used to hold a framed photo of the Libyan dictator. Suleiman, a radio studio director, dates the genesis of the current crop of media to an event exactly one year before the launch of the 17^th of February revolution.

“We were producing a radio programme called “good evening Benghazi” on the local Benghazi state-owned radio station.  The programme was dealing with local issues with a critical approach and had discussed the call for investigation of the Abu Slim massacre in which 1,200 are reported to have been killed. The following day we were called by the security and detained.” Continue Reading »

Daoud Kuttab

A visitor to Libya now, be it to Benghazi or Tripoli, cannot help but make some comparisons between the Libyan revolution and the Palestinian Intifada.

Walk the streets of liberated Libya and you will immediately notice graffiti on the walls and the liberation flags on all locations. To be fair, the Libyan graffiti is much more colorful and creative. The image of Muammar Qaddafi — often referred to as the despot — with his distinctive hairdo, overwhelms all other images. Graffiti in Tripoli and Benghazi naturally praises the February 17 revolution and flags of the new Libya adorn every possible location. Continue Reading »