Since late 2017, Raseef22 has been working in partnership with the Check Newsroom, demonstrating exactly the kind of relationships we’d like to be establishing with news platforms and organisations. Raseef22 is an independent media platform, presenting news and views relevant to the Arab world. Raseef22 fills a cultural gap in the Arabic-language media landscape, acknowledging both local values and global perspectives. They therefore share the concerns of the Newsroom, where we cover diverse issues, but will be, for example, focussing on the Lebanese elections in May 2018.
In the first instance, Abir Gattas from Raseef22 delivered a two-day training to our Newsroom students on ‘using social media for advocacy’ as part of our December 2017 workshops. We then developed an internship opportunity with Raseef22, and the organisation is currently reviewing the applications so that they will shortly be able to take on trainee journalists for a three months paid internship at their Beirut offices. This will also then feed into collaborative work with the organisation during our elections coverage… and who knows where next? These kinds of partnerships with practicing journalists and organisations are exactly the kinds of experiences that help us develop as journalists in our own right, whether as a route into the industry, or through other avenues. We hope to develop more of them in the future.