Daoud Kuttab visiting IMS on his visit to Denmark in March 2009. Photo: Lotte Dahlmann/IMS

Last month, the Internet-based radio station AmmanNet was appointed the Number One website on local news in Jordan. In this interview, Daoud Kuttab - the founder of AmmanNet and a close partner of IMS in the Arab world shares his views on current media trends in the Arab world

He is the founder of the first Internet-based radio station in the Arab world, AmmanNet, a prize winning journalist himself and Chairman of the board of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, ARIJ - just to name of few of his achievements.

The name is Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian by birth residing in Jordan's capitol Amman. A close partner of IMS, Daoud Kuttab shared his thoughts on the current media situation in the Arab world, when he visited Denmark in March 2009.

Global trends in media - but the motivation is completely different

-    Change is happening but at a slower pace than one could hope for, says Daoud Kuttab and points to the fact that the new media including the internet and cell phones are speeding up changes of the space for freedom of expression and access to information:

-    Because of new media, governments and the power circles are coming to terms with the fact that they can no longer keep information from the people. With the majority of Arabs being young, the new platforms have a great potential for a breakthrough. It may have a ripple effect from media to media, from one country to another thus erasing the borders. This will force traditional journalists and media to change, he says.

For AmmanNet, the technological advances have been a big plus:

- In Jordan, 19 percent of the radio audiences listen through their cell phones, so you can say that cell phones have given new life to radio.

Having just spent the past year as a visiting professor at Princeton University in the USA, Daoud Kuttab has followed the ‘bloodshed' in traditional news media in the West that has brought about a global paradigm shift from traditional media to internet-based and mobile communication.

Though the development trends may be the same in the West as in the Arab world, there is an important difference, he says:

-    Business models of news media in the West are falling apart. But for us in the Arab world, online news services were not a luxury but a necessity due to government control and censorship over traditional media. We need to overcome the first steps of access to information, he says and adds, that ARIJ is a small effort in breaking the information monopoly.

Fighting for fact-based reporting

When IMS engaged in collaboration with Arab and Danish media people to establish Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in 2004, which is today operating out of its offices in Amman and reaching out to reporters from a broad range of Arab countries - the idea and inspiration came from Daoud Kuttab and a few other experienced media representatives in the Arab world. Today, Daoud Kuttab is the Chairman of the board of ARIJ.

His commitment to ARIJ stems from a mix of personal passion for the journalistic profession and frustration with the sometimes-lacking quality of reporting in the Arab world.

-    With ARIJ, we are trying to fight this with serious investigative reporting, and we are having some success. I believe it does in fact have an impact on journalism in other fields.

Referring to a recently passed media law in Jordan, Daoud Kuttab suggests that there is still some way to go, before media workers in the Arab world gain real and free access to information:

-    The new media law in Jordan is so restricted concerning the classification of secrets that makes access to information a joke. In a way, it was a step backwards, he says and ponders for a moment.

Growing sense of the quality of reporting

He finds consolation in meeting and working with young people who have uncorrupted minds and who demonstrate a great appetite for good journalism. Asked to prove his points in the good tradition of fact-based reporting, Daoud Kuttab says:

-    Once we reach a saturation stage of access to information, then it will be fair to ask people: Which media do you trust, but I don't think we are there yet. There is, however a growing understanding that people begin to know what is right and wrong in journalism.
-     This was demonstrated in the beginning of the year, when Al Jazeera Arabic broadcast live from inside Gaza (During the armed conflict between the Palestinian territory and Israel). When people began to feel that AJ started to push a certain agenda, many people switched to other channels. So I have faith in journalists who abstain from those dealings and instead stick to fact-based reporting.

No doubt, Daoud Kuttab loves his profession and has made it his mission in life:

- I believe in the profession of media and to me, the mission and the profession go hand in hand. The mission is to tell the truth and the profession is to acquire the skills to do it according to universal guidelines of ethics and professional reporting. I strive to be a good journalist, and try to also educate, if you like, people in appreciating good media.

He has gone as far as to introduce a radio program called "Eye on the Arab media" that scrutinizes the media coverage in order to engage both professional media workers as well as the general public in a public discussion about good and bad reporting.

Thus daring - and worse: the fact that he brings it out in the open - Daoud Kuttab has had to learn to live with being an object of criticism within his own professional circles. Most recently, this is what happened, when AmmanNet was awarded in IREX' annual Audience research for having the best website for local news in Jordan:

- We witnessed vicious attacks by our own colleagues. Instead of congratulating us, they attacked us.

- I don't  hide the fact that I am frustrated at times, so you have your ups and downs. But then you look at the other side - I met many people who praised our work.

Daoud Kuttab is planning his next visit to Denmark in late April for the ARIJ board meeting in Copenhagen.