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AYAMM, Arab Youth and Modern Media 

 Online Magazine targeted to the Youth!!!! What do I want from it?
"I'm not sure. Really" Sana' a 17 year old student, "I think I want to be able to find all the information that I want in there". And here pops up the obvious question in our minds!!! What are the information that you want to find on the Internet as a Jordanian youth. Ayamm is a magazine that tailors the needs of the new age of Jordan,,, The YOUTH. But in order to tailor those needs, there had to be extensive research among the targeted group of youth, and other similar projects in the Arab word and worldwide. Read On

Editorial                                                                                                      by Mahasen al Emam - AWMC Director and AYAMM Chief Editor 

Princess Basma urges media to clarify image of Islam

AMMAN (Petra) — HRH Princess Basma urged media professionals and journalists to clarify misconceptions related the “unjust campaign” against Islam and Arabs.

In her opening remarks at the Fifth Arab Women Media Conference, entitled “Arab Media in Dialogue with the Other,” Princess Basma cited the Amman Message and His Majesty’s continuous visits to different countries to communicate the true image of the faith to both Muslims and others.

She added that the media’s message to the world should be straight, clear and based on facts so that it would be attractive and persuasive.

The media in this age of advanced communications and technology, she said, requires development and modernisation.  Media outlets should be able to address all communities regardless of different cultures, and deliver their message in a language that people can understand and thus react to.

Princess Basma, who is the honorary chairperson of the Arab Media Women Centre (AMWC), stressed that women journalists can play an important role once they have the necessary support from their media establishments. Such support comes through ensuring them justice in their places of work, she said.

The Princess voiced hope the conference would help empower women journalists to communicate to the world the true image of Islam and Arabs, win people’s confidence and learn from other nations lessons that help them enhance their own culture and boost democratic practices in their societies.

The AMWC President Mahasen Imam said she hoped participants in the three-day event would agree on a joint media strategy that would be useful to the generations to come.  

The AMWC centre was established in 1999 under the directives of Princess Basma to empower Arab women journalists.

Imam also congratulated UAE and Saudi Arabian peers for establishing similar centres in their respective countries.

The Amman-based regional representative of Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Hardy Ostry, whose organisation sponsored the conference, highlighted the importance of the topic under discussion. He said the event came at a time of difficult challenges in the region, and underlined the subsequent need for a serious dialogue that bridges people and gives peace “a real opportunity.”

Thirty-three participants from 13 Arab countries and experts from the UK and France are taking part in the conference.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Fifth Arab Women Journalists' Conference Final

Communiqué /Recommendations

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.

UNDER PATRONAGE OF HRH PRINCES BASSMA

5th Arab women journalists conference - Amman - Jordan

Sep 19-21 - 2006

Place: Radisson SAS Hotel - Amman

Conference Justification and Objectives

Justification:
Living in a new era of global challenges and modern communication technology, Arab Media (governmental and private) face the need to upgrade and update their understanding and skills in addressing non-Arab public and audiences and develop a new media strategy introducing their points of views to reflect a realistic and realistic image of the Arab people. Arab Women Journalists live in a region of this world where recently conflicts have increased and led to severe social, economic and political changes. Arab Women in Media need to shoulder their responsibility of finding new and successful ways of talking with “The Others”.

Objectives:
The overall goal of the 5th Arab Women Media conference is to create and strengthen an Arab network of women working in the media with special attention to the following issues:
- Creating a shared understanding of the new challenges and strengthening the will of Arab women working in the media to overcome these obstacles together.
- Finding ways and applicable mechanisms to discuss and present collective Arab issues in an objective way, thus bridging the gap of inter-cultural understanding.
- Defining communication needs and ways how to address the non-Arab nations to transmit a more realistic and pluralistic image of the Arab communities, their will to reconciliation, seeking others’ friendship in a non-violent, peaceful way,
- Establishing transparency and objectivity to keep pace with other nations through practicing the culture and values of democracy and finding ways for changing, for the best of Arab communities.
- Working at replacing outdated Media means and tools with modern and advanced ones in view of an accelerating, global world.
- Creating highly trusted communication channels with people and nations throughout the world.
- Establishing cooperation between responsible Media Women to influence the Arab Media, and to develop and implement a responsible Arab Media strategy.

Participants from: Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and two well known media experts from UK and France.

Also 15 selective' Jordanian journalists will part in. 

Participants details please click here

Tentative agenda please go here

Conference Guide for culture conflicts dialogue just press here

THIRD ARAB WOMEN JOURNALISTS CONFERENCE

AMMAN - JORDAN, JUNE

25-28-2004

Conference major objectives is to high light and underline codes of Modern Arab Media Strategy

THE AGENDA  

1-Press Laws in the Arab World and Their Impact  on Women  in Media

2-Political, Legal and Economic Obstacles  for the Arab Media Work

   Reports & Experiences from (country)

3- Past and Present Situation of Women Journalists in the Print Media  

   Developments and Experiences from (country)

4- Woman Journalists in TV and Radio

   Evidences and Experiences from (country)

5-       Women Journalists’ Role in Advocating Human Rights (country)    

6-       The Absence of Media Training and the Need to Re-activate the  Role of media institutions  and professional associations

7.  Modern Media between Supper wealthy and Governmental Domination

8.  Modern Arab Media policy and political development.                          

9. What other topics do you suggest concerning Arab Women Journalists?

Conference Press Releases:

1.   By Rana Husseini

AMMAN — Minister of Political Development and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Daoudiyeh

said the government is exerting efforts to eliminate all laws that discriminate against women.

“The government is working seriously to erase any legislative discrimination against women and to ensure their right to live with dignity and pride,” the minister said.

Daoudiyeh was addressing over 80 local and Arab female journalists who gathered in the capital for the Third Arab Women Journalist Conference — a three-day workshop organised by the Arab Women Media Centre.

The conference objectives include updating the national media strategy based on press freedom and expression, as well as ethics, democracy, equality, networking and media training.

The minister revealed during a lecture he delivered on reform and political development — A Jordanian vision — that the government plans to allocate a certain amount of money to support political parties.

“The government plans to impose strict and transparent terms on the political parties when supporting them financially,” the minister said.

One of these terms, he told the participants, is to ensure a good percentage of women's representation both in their membership and leadership positions.

Turning to the issue of honour crimes, the minister said the government has been doing its utmost to address this problem, and “the government's efforts received Royal family backing... But there are strong conservative powers in the Jordanian community that are fighting any efforts geared towards this problem.”

He added that women's groups did not lobby hard and did not coordinate their efforts in a well-organised manner in order to push for ending these crimes and changing discriminatory legislation.

Annually, between 20-25 women are reportedly killed by their male relatives in the Kingdom in so-called honour crimes.

In most cases, the killers end up receiving prison terms ranging from three months to two years in prison.

He said women's groups' efforts in this issue were weak and scattered. “In order for them to make significant changes, they should organise themselves and lobby the deputies before putting the issue for discussion,” he added.

During the morning session journalists from Yemen, Tunisia, Palestine and Algeria shared their experiences and the obstacles facing their profession.

Journalist Hiba Assaf from Ramallah said although the Palestinian Press Law guaranteed freedom of expression for the media, women journalists still suffered from discrimination at work.

“Female reporters are still getting paid less than their male colleagues. Also, their field of coverage is limited to women and children's issues,” Assaf explained.

Algerian reporter Ayshah Mohamadieh said press reform would never see the light “as long as Arab governments still monitor and oppress the media.”

“How can we talk about press freedom and political development if we are oppressed?” Mohamadieh said.

“Should we depend on impaired and defeated organisations to be responsible for citizens' political, cultural and educational development?” she added.

Participants at the event hailed from Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Palestine, Algeria, Tunis, UK, USA, and Jordan.

CONFERENCE COMMUNIQUÉ'S PLEASE CLICK HERE

HRH Princess Basma delivers an address at a ceremony on Thursday organised by the Arab Women's Media Centre to mark Arab Women's Day

AMMAN (Petra) — HRH Princess Basma on Thursday lauded the achievements of Arab and Jordanian women in social, humanitarian and economic fields, describing them as a valuable contribution to the process of change and their countries' socio-economic growth.
Princess Basma, honorary president of the Arab Women's Media Centre (AWMC), was speaking at a ceremony organised by the centre to mark Arab Women's Day. She said Arab women have come to realise the accelerating trend towards change around the world, particularly the growing recognition of and respect for women's rights.
There is a growing and noticeable increase in attention given to Jordanian and Arab women's rights and status, and a real awareness on the part of women themselves of their role in society, stressed the Princess.
Women's religious beliefs and culture are considered as a source of power for women and their activities, added Princess Basma.
She expressed her appreciation of the centre's efforts towards enhancing women's social status and the role of the youth sector.
AWMC Director Mahasen Imam said thanks to the United Nations, which sponsored a number of international conferences to put the spotlight on women's issues, the world has started focusing attention on the role of women in development.
Dutch Ambassador to Jordan Hugo Gajus Scheltema also addressed the meeting. He underlined the importance of women and expressed his country's readiness to back women's initiatives in developing the local community.
Minister of State and Government Spokesperson Asma Khader and several parliamentarians, who also attended the event, watched a documentary film on divorce in the local community, based on field surveys and statistics.
Following the screening, participants held discussions on the issue of divorce and its adverse effects on the community from religious and legal perspectives.
Scholars, researchers, religious leaders and media representatives took part in the discussions.