AMEJA board member and producer/correspondent Mona Iskander brings us an in-depth special report from Egypt one year after the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak. Is life better for Egyptians? What does the future hold?  Tune in to Need to Know on PBS this February 24th @ 8:30pm in NY (check local listings outside of NY)

www.pbs.org/needtoknow

Mona is an award-winning producer and correspondent for Need to Know on PBS, a weekly, national news magazine show. Her work has taken her from the streets of Cairo, Ramallah and Amm

an to the remote island of Kiribati in the South Pacific to report on climate change. She has traveled from one US coast to the other to find out how the economy has affected Americans. Mona worked for the weekly news magazine show “NOW” on PBS and

previously as an associate producer for CNN where she worked on both breaking news and long-form feature stories. She has a master`s degree from the Columbia Journalism School.

Rare is a voice that can convey news with the objectivity of a journalist, the intellect of a scholar and the bravery of a warrior. Anthony Shadid did all of that with compassion. All of us at AMEJA mourn the loss of a friend, a mentor and a colleague. It is not hyperbole to say he was perhaps the greatest Arab-American of our generation, and what an honor it is that he was a journalist.

For many of us, Anthony was not only a colleague, but a mentor, an inspiration, and a friend. Several years ago, Anthony graciously accepted a position as an honorary AMEJA Board Member. It is our hope that his legacy continues and that he will inspire journalists toward excellence and sensitivity in the years to come.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
http://www.nytimes.com

Members and Supporters are invited to join us at the Half King as we celebrate the publication of colleague Ashraf Khalil’s book Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation with a reading and the winter AMEJA member mixer.

The reading starts at around 7pm. The mixer follows.

The Half King is located in Chelsea, at 505 West 23rd Street, on the corner of Tenth Avenue.

Several of our members have been at the forefront of reporting in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East and North Africa over the past year. As we are reminded on a regular basis, reporting during times of tumult is dangerous, and on several occasions, journalists, including AMEJA members, have been harassed, assaulted, injured, detained, or even worse.

AMEJA is particularly disturbed by what appears to be the deliberate, harassment of journalists in Egypt last month. Two of our members, Mona El-Tahawy, was sexually assaulted and beaten by Egyptian government agents and Jehane Noujaim, was detained.

Of course, the violence against journalists isn’t limited to Egypt. Earlier this year, one of our honorary board members, Anthony Shadid, along with his colleagues were arrested and beaten by Qaddhafi government forces while reporting on the Libyan uprising. Karim Fakhrawi, the co-founder of al-Wasat newspaper in Bahrain, died in police custody in April. Jordanian riot police beat local and foreign reporters – including AMEJA board member Kareem Fahim – at a demonstration in July. Hassan al-Wadhaf, a Yemeni cameraman, was fatally shot by a government sniper in Sana’a in September.

In November, Ferzat Jarban, a Syrian cameraman, was found dead with his eyes gouged out a day after he was arrested while filming anti-government demonstrations in Homs.

Sadly, there are dozens of other journalists working for local news organizations that have been tortured and imprisoned by Middle Eastern governments. Among them have been journalists held by US authorities at various prisons including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Bagram, Afghanistan.

AMEJA stands with journalists everywhere who are being targeted simply for fulfilling their mission of enlightening the world about the events that ultimately affect us all. We would hope that members inform us in a timely manner of friends and colleagues who go missing or who are injured.

AMEJA member and Al Jazeera Correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin has been chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people of the 21st century.

Mohyeldin instantly became a recognizable television reporter for his extraordinary reporting on Gaza and most recently, Egypt’s historic revolution from Cairo on Al Jazeera English.

Al Jazeera English: Ayman Mohyeldin on his detention:

During the 2008/2009 War on Gaza, Mohyeldin was the only foreign correspondent based out of Gaza. You can hear reports from Mohyeldin on the ground on AMEJA’s BlogTalkRadio:

Congratulations Ayman, and thank you for your insightful reports and analysis on the ground in the Middle East.

AMEJA Board

AMEJA is pleased to learn that honorary AMEJA board member Anthony Shadid and three other New York Times journalists, Tyler Hicks, Lynsey Addario, and Stephen Farrell have been released from detention in Libya.  We wish their safe return to their families and colleagues.

AMEJA wishes that the detention of Shadid and his colleagues was an isolated incident, but we know all too well that journalists are often targeted by forces that do not want a story reported, or, as a a seemingly soft target to press organizations or governments to meet certain demands.

Given the fact that so many AMEJA members have connections to, or work in volatile parts of the world, it is an unfortunate reality that all too often, members and their journalist colleagues find themselves in dangerous or unsavory circumstances.

AMEJA is always concerned about detention, harassment, or violation of journalists everywhere.  Regardless of the reasons a government, group, or individuals might give for molesting journalists, AMEJA expects them to be afforded every protection they might be entitled to under law, whether local, national, or international.  And we expect that every effort be made to ensure their safety in any circumstance.

After over two weeks, the audacious people’s revolt against the Mubarak regime in Egypt seemed to be coming to a head. Despite a combination of brutal measures against demonstrators, proposed concessions by the government toward them, rumors, and confusing reports the protests continued in ebbs and flows. At moments, it seemed the opposition would break. Yet, the movement against the regime regained momentum, inspired by the human stories told on non-state media, and drawing new actions by labor unions and other syndicates around the country. Just before this announcement, Hosni Mubarak was expected to announce his departure from office.

Yet, in an unexpected twist, Mubarak stubbornly refused to go. Undoubtedly, the Egyptian people will react strongly to this obstinence. Regardless of what happens, the implications of these events for Egypt, the Middle East, and the rest of the world are profound. As part of its mission to provide intimate understanding of issues in the Middle East and North Africa, AMEJA is pleased to hold its second program on the revolt in Egypt. Joining us in conversation will be reporters on the ground in Egypt with analysis by Egypt specialist Professor Mona El-Ghobashy of Barnard College, New York. Please listen to this important broadcast.

Please join us at www.blogtalkradio.com/ameja or call in to +1 (646) 727-2779 on Friday, February 11, 2011, 11 AM EST

Listeners can participate through a Q&A following the discussion.

The program will be archived at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/AMEJA

We hope you can listen and look forward to your participation in this and other BlogTalk broadcasts.

As part of our ongoing commitment to bringing you important perspectives on the unfolding events in the region, AMEJA has scheduled a BlogTalk Radio session on Egypt. The program will take place today, Monday, January 31, at 12noon, EST.   Participating live from Egypt will be:

Kareem Fahim, The New York Times, Currently reporting from Egypt
Tamer El-Ghobashy, Wall Street Journal, reporting from Egypt

The discussion will be moderated by Hoda Osman, incoming AMEJA Board President

Listeners will be able to ask questions via Ameja’s Twitter feed @AMEJA, the chatbox available on the BlogTalk link, and by phoning  the call-in number 646 727 2779.  Podcast is available after the show.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ameja/2011/01/31/egypt-a-peoples-revolt

Events following the ouster of the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia are moving at a rapid pace, with multiple possibilities for the future, both inside Tunisia and as well North Africa and the Middle East.

To discuss the latest news happening on the ground, as well as broader, regional implications, AMEJA is proud to host a roundtable, with experts and AMEJA members in Tunisia and around the world.

Confirmed guests include:  Anthony Shadid and Kareem Fahim of the New York Times, Taoufiq Ben Amor of Columbia University, and others.

Please join us at www.blogtalkradio.com/ameja or call in to +1 (646) 727-2779 on Tuesday, January 18, at 12noon, EST.

Listeners can participate through a Q&A following the discussion.

The program will be archived at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/AMEJA

We hope you can listen and look forward to your participation in this and other BlogTalk broadcasts.

The Somali Journalists Association Network (SOJANET) is reporting the injury of freelancer journalist Hassan Mohamed Abiikar known as Hassan Matore who was attacked by four unknown gunmen in Afgoye district in the Lower Shabelle region on Tuesday evening.

Matore was shot four times in the chest by the attackers and seriously injured. He was immediately rushed to the Daynile Hospital in Mogadishu
Explorations by the SOJANET and the local Journalists revealed there was a high intemperate fear for journalists being killed just for their transparency of reporting news in the Al shabaab and those Al Hisbul-Islam areas.

“Despite risks and dangers that Somali journalists face on a daily basis in Somalia, at least SOJANET should be happy to tell colleagues in Somalia that there will be a hope of a bright future for all Somalis including journalists who were experienced in almost 20 years of war, so let the journalists in Somalia move forward rather than be scattered in fear”, said SOJANET Secretary General Mohamed Mohamud Odowa

Somalia is Africa ’s deadliest country and dangerous place for foreign and local journalists that very little news escapes at all, SOJANET said.

Kidnap, torture and death are as much a part of journalists’ lives in many parts of the Somalia .

SOJANET is nonprofit Network and non-Governmental organization, but only serves and dedicated for Somali Journalists as well as the freedom of speech.