Closing Session of the 5^th Arab Women Media Conference on “Arab Media in Dialogue with Others”

Amman, 19.-21.9. 2006

Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Basmah Bint Talal and Honorary President of the Arab Women Media Center, the Arab Media Women Center’s fifth conference entitled “Arab Media in Dialogue with Others” was held in Amman in cooperation with Konrad Adenauer Foundation and with the participation of 50 media women, a number of experts in media and communication, and representatives of regional and international organizations from 15 Arab countries.
The fifth conference coincided with the announcement of establishing another two similar centers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Hence, the number of similar centers has reached five in each of Palestine, Yemen, and Egypt.
During three days participants have discussed 8 working papers, as well as listened to the testimonies of journalists who have suffered from the war circumstances or other exceptional circumstances during their work.

The conference has discussed a number of aspects including:
How to change the conventional image of Arabs through media, the role and responsibility of the private media in supporting democratic transition, the role of media institutions and persons in changing media and social performance, in addition to distinguished working papers of media experts regarding the vision of the West towards the Arabs in terms of Media.
The Recommendations Committee, consisting of women representatives from participating Arab Countries, reached the following:
1. The importance of organizing specialized training courses about the skills and the techniques of addressing the other, international laws, journalism ethics, and applying the social approach in the journalistic production.
2. Endorsing, translating, and publishing Arab Media Women’s testimonies and articles in different media outlets and various websites.
3. Activating the partnership between the Arab media women and Arab civil society institutions for the sake of holding discussion sessions about the method of modernizing the dialogue with the other on the Arab and international level.
4. Supporting the experiences of media women in the field of electronic journalism, by facilitating releases in more than one language, and enhancing their participation in conferences and seminars.
5. Supporting and encouraging media women to uncover the occupation practices against media women and men, and shedding light on their personal and social suffering and broadcasting their experience on the broadest possible way.
6. Supporting the Arab Media Women Center in its specialized training programs, working to benefit from the programs executed by the center, and utilizing its renowned qualifications and experience.
7. Requesting the Arab Media Women to draw attention to the UN conventions of human rights that were signed by their governments, and requesting the Arab Media Women to use the monitoring tools [periodical reports] for news coverage.
8. The participants of the conference have formed a committee, the members of which are representatives of the participant Arab countries, in addition to representatives of the Arab Media Women Center in Jordan.

The recommendations will be forwarded to:
• The Jordanian National Committee for Women Affairs, chaired by her Royal Highness the Princess Basma Bint Talal.
• Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Regional office in Amman to be distributed to all its branches in all countries.
• The Arab Woman Department in the Arab League.
• Civil society institutions in Jordan, Arab countries, and other friendly countries.
• Publishing the recommendations in the local newspapers, and through local and Arab websites.