Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Arab Media Watch's 4th annual fundraising dinner, and the eighth year of its existence.

Not only do we have a top-notch line-up of media speakers and entertainment, but our audience is equally distinguished. There are guests from all over the Arab world, ambassadors and representatives from most of the Arab embassies, and journalists and editors from most of the largest British and Arab print and broadcast media.

This evening would not have been possible without the wonderful generosity of our sponsors:

The Council of Arab Ambassadors

Dr Basil & Maha Aql

Dr Nabil Qaddumi

Dr Ramzi Dalloul

I would also like to thank all our supporters, auction donors, raffle donors and organisers.

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The year since our last fundraising dinner has been by far our most productive yet, and this has been consistently the case over the years. The success of our last dinner has allowed us to hire an extra IT expert for our website, which comprises the core of our activities, as well as a new part-timer. The year before, we were able to hire two extra fulltime staff, which allowed us to build so much on our achievements and track record.

For example, so far this year we have produced no less than 17 major monitoring studies. That is more than twice as many as the whole of 2007, and almost as many as the last two years combined. This year's studies covered 14 Arab countries, the entire national British daily press, and the largest broadcasters in the country.

Also this year, we have had almost three dozen meetings so far with mainstream British news organisations, in London and in various Arab countries. These have achieved concrete results, such as arranging interviews, supplying information for articles, and arranging trips to the Arab world.

The number of interviews AMW has given, the number of interviews we have arranged for the media, the number of times we have helped journalists with information, the number of events, lectures and debates we have spoken at and attended, the number of letters we have had published, and the number of articles written by us and about us so far this year are simply too many to count.

These certainly occur on a daily basis, and with ever-increasing frequency. Just one recent and notable example where the media reacted strongly and positively to our press releases was our urging of the media to cover the Palestinian narrative of the Nakba.

Last month saw the addition of our latest adviser, Makram Khoury-Machool, an award-winning journalist and senior lecturer in media studies at Cambridge University.

We have publicised and offered discounts on several books on the Arab world through our website, as well as a book published last month and edited by our adviser Victor Kattan, entitled "The Palestinian Question in International Law." Our adviser Guy Gabriel is currently editing a book by a Daily Mail columnist on US foreign policy, and AMW is helping arrange a publisher.

We have organised several events recently, such as book launches, two concerts of classical Arabic music, a dinner for Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, and film screenings, including a festival focused on Arab female directors and women in Arab cinema, and our association with the screening of Arab films at the Mosaiques Festival.

This is in line with our ever-increasing focus on Arab culture. In fact, we are in the process of setting up an AMW charitable foundation to encompass all the non-political aspects of our work.

In terms of our achievements, I could go on, and on, and on, but we just do not have time. Put simply, we are going from strength to strength, and have been doing so since our inception eight years ago. This is shown in the ever-increasing awareness, support and interaction by the media.

But this does not mean we will, or should, rest on our laurels. There is still much to do and improve on. One misconception we tackle is that our work is mainly of interest to those who come from conflict zones in the Arab world. This is far from the case. For example, media portrayals of Arab countries that are allies of the West are little better than those that are not.

Our studies this year on North African states such as Algeria, Libya and Morocco revealed largely negative sentiment. Likewise, for example, Saudi Arabia, which is readily described by many in the media here as Britain's most important ally in the Middle East, fares little better than, for example, Syria or Sudan.

Take even the Gulf states: while their increasing financial power and investments are used to bolster Britain's economy, they are viewed with growing suspicion and fear by many in the media, and their being Arab is often highlighted in this context. This is just the most recent example.

You would think this was an alien invasion: they say they come in peace, but what they really want is world domination! You may laugh, but this is no exaggeration.  Take this scaremongering quote last year from Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips:

"Gordon Brown has said Britain should become the centre of global Islamic banking.  But this is heavily backed by Saudi Arabia which will use it to further its objective of Islamising the West - and may even provide a cover for the financing of further terror."

And this is not simply about Arab governments. We published a major study recently on the contexts in which the word 'Arab' is used by the media, and they were predominantly negative, even in fields that you would not expect, such as travel, business, property, sports etc. So AMW tackles issues that affect all of us, regardless of nationality.

You find stereotypes in the strangest of places. I was recently interviewed by a newspaper about an initiative by Jordan's Queen Rania to tackle anti-Arab stereotyping. The article meant well, but expressed pleasant surprise that she could speak in perfect English! Imagine, Arabs speaking perfect English, what will they think of next?!

I do not say all this to dishearten you, but simply to show you what we are up against.  It is not easy, but we are making a real, constant and positive difference. I do not think I need to convince you of the importance of our work, or else you would not be here today, suffice to say that we are the only organisation in Britain doing this job.

With your help, tonight, we hope to be able not just to continue making a difference, but to do so with the funding required to meet our expanding goals and ambitions.