A new Journalism Observatory for the Arabic World

The network of the European Journalism Observatory (EJO), the research unit created in 2004 by the Faculty of Communication Sciences at USI (Università della Svizzera italiana), is expanding into the Arabic world: together with the Media Development Center (MDC) in Tunis, Tunisia, the Arabic Journalism Observatory (AJO www.ajo-ar.org) has been created. On its new website and on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, the AJO will provide news on journalism and media research, press freedom and media accountability, trends in journalism and on the media enterprises in Arabic (and soon also in French) language, with focus on Arabic countries.

AJO is directed by Abdelkrim Hizaoui, Professor at the Institut de Presse et des Sciences de l'Information (IPSI) and former Director of the Centre Africain de Perfectionnement des Journalistes et des Communicateurs (CAPJC) in Tunis. Prof. Hizaoui hopes to give Arab media researchers and media professionals a forum to present their research and exchange experiences at a time when the media are called upon to support the political transitions triggered by the "Arab Spring”. The AJO website will be edited by Nouha Belaid, PhD candidate at IPSI, blogger and digital media lecturer.

The AJO thus joins the network of the European Journalism Observatory (http://en.ejo.ch) which includes 13 European and one American universities and research institutions sharing common goals to provide better access to research dealing with journalism and the digital disruption in the media industries and to improve the exchange between different journalism cultures across language barriers.

The AJO project aims also at improving relationships between Switzerland and the countries overseeing the North and South shores of the Mediterranean Sea, a goal that revitalizes the intentions and objectives that had brought to the creation of the Laboratory of Mediterranean Studies at USI. AJO is supported by the Fondazione Fidinam.