Al Jazeera, Freedom of the Press, and Forecasting Humanitarian Emergencies Routledge Focus on Media and Humanitarian Action Series

This book reveals how Al Jazeera and its news coverage became a force for change politically, socially and culturally in the Middle East in general, and the Arab world in particular.

It explores pre-Al Jazeera and post-Al Jazeera representations of humanitarian crises and identifies a potentially significant partnership between the news organizations and humanitarian actors. By tracing the evolution of the news network, the book sheds new light on how Al Jazeera effected change in the Global South. The research identifies a significant relationship between Al Jazeera?s news coverage and the ability to forecast international humanitarian actions, politically and militarily. It also explores the potential for continued partnership between humanitarian actors and news organization to identify crises in their early stages. Lastly, the book examines the distinct, original lexicon developed by Al Jazeera for humanitarian affairs and shows how the network influenced international media stylebooks and changed humanitarian coverage on key global issues.

A compelling examination of Al Jazeera?s news operation that will be of interest to students and scholars of media studies, political communication, journalism and news reporting, international politics and the media, and Arab media.

Introduction 1. A Voice in the Wilderness: The Early Years of Building Al-Jazeera From the Ground Up 2. From South to North: Reversing the Flow of Information while Covering War and Disaster 3. A New Kind of Humanitarian Journalism: Partnerships, Coalitions, Research and Investigations 4. Case Studies and Al Jazeera’s next Phase: Protecting Journalists, Human Rights, and Predicting Disaster 5. The Power of Words: Between Al-Jazeera’s Humanitarian Stylebook and the Hateful Rhetoric of "Radio Rwanda" 6. Ethics and Values of Good Journalism in a Dictatorial Environment Conclusion: Global Press Freedoms Under Attack

Yehia Ghanem is an Egyptian journalist, writer and commentator now based in Washington, DC. For almost 20 years, he worked as a war correspondent covering conflicts in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Angola. He has won awards for his coverage of the Bosnian Civil War. He was the Senior Editor of the prestigious Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, and later headed Dar-Al-Hilal media conglomerate as Chairman of the Board. He has appeared as a panelist and keynote speaker at national, regional and international seminars, and was a Fellow in Residence from 2013 to 2014 at the City University of New York (CUNY).