Cross-border Collaboration as Modus Operandi for Arab Public Interest Journalism

Abstract

Despite laws, ownership structures and intimidation of media practitioners in Arab countries that render independent reporting extremely risky, digital media initiatives have sprung up across the region aimed at providing crucial insights into matters of public interest that are suppressed by state-controlled media. Blocked online and harassed offline by government forces, these initiatives survive against the odds, often working with cross-border support networks. Reflecting a range of innovative transnational interactions, such solidarity networks emerge when media practitioners pursue national concerns through regional and global alliances. This essay reviews noteworthy features of these interactions in light of an existing tradition of intra-regional cross-border exchange facilitated through shared language and history. It compares the pan-Arabism of independent public interest media with that of the mainstream in terms of its driving values and compatibility with a sense of pride in inclusive and pluralistic nationhood that rejects the sectarianism fuelling civil conflict. By reviewing examples of a multiplicity of different types of cross-border collaboration within the region and beyond, the essay concludes that the diversity of these connections and relationships strengthens a public interest media ecosystem that is otherwise quite fragile.