Closing of the program on “Investigative journalism and access to information”

The closing ceremony of the program “Investigative journalism and access to information” took place in Tunis 13 December. 

Present at the ceremony, were Saloua Ghazouani, Director of Article 19 MENA office, David Diaz Jogeix, Program Director in Article 19, Hanene Zbiss, representative of TAIJ (Tunisian Association for Investigative Journalism) and coordinator of the program, and Karim Belhaj, Program director in Article 19.

In the opening of the ceremony, the representatives of the different partner organizations expressed their satisfaction about the course of the program and specially the output (eight investigations) in a short time (three months).

Then, the participants (eight journalists from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Libya) presented their investigative works, telling about their choice of subjects, the truths they revealed and the difficulties they faced.

In this program, ten journalists from North Africa had a training in investigative journalism from 6 to 8 September 2018. Then, they took three months to produce investigative stories about subjects related to corruption, pollution, health, illegal immigration, etc. During this period, they were supervised by experienced journalists, and their fees needed for production were covered by the program.

At the end of project, they produced six written investigations, one radio investigation and one audiovisual investigation.

A jury was created from the partners of the program, to select the best productions.

During the ceremony, the prize list was revealed:

1er Prize: Bahira Ouiji (Tunisia) for her investigation: Exploitation of illegal African immigrants in Sfax -published by Radio Diwan FM: 

2^ndPrize: Mohamed Naili (Libya) for his investigation: Pollution with fuel of “Jalo” zone in Libya

– Special Mention for Najeh Zaghdoudi (Tunisia) for his investigation about corruption on the industrial sector in Kairouan

– Special Mention for Abdellatif Hammamouchi (Morocco) for his investigation about the continued use of plastic despite the prohibition by law. Read the story

Some of these investigations were already published, other will be published soon.  Read the story about migrants transferring money from Algeria by Yesmine Nab.  Mouldi Zouabi has investigated “The commerce of minor —housekeepers in Tunisia”.  Hamza Atbi from Algeria writes about the use of some medicine as a drug by young people which could cause their death.

The program of “Investigative Journalism and access to Information” is organized by Journalism & Media International Center (JMIC) at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, Article 19 and the Tunisian Association for Investigative Journalism. (Text by Hanene Zbiss)

• Category: Investigative journalism