Report on 2008 AMW fundraising dinner

Hundreds attended the fourth annual fundraising dinner of Arab Media Watch, an independent, non-profit organisation (the only one of its kind) set up in 2000 to strive for objective coverage of Arab issues in the British media. Among them were dozens of senior journalists and editors from a dozen of the largest news organisations in the country, gathered at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London, on 7 June 2008.

The night began with a welcome by AMW chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi. "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," said Nashashibi, who summed up activities in 2008 so far.

"We're 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," he added. "But this doesn't mean we will, or should, rest on our laurels. There's still much to do and improve on…It's not easy, but we're making a real, constant and positive difference."

Nashashibi read out a written message by Jonathan Steele, the multi-award-winning Guardian columnist and correspondent: "I'm sorry I can't be present with you this evening, but please accept my support for the vital work which AMW does.

"At a time when prejudice about Islam and its adherents is on the increase in Europe, it's crucial to have an organisation which carefully monitors the British press for signs of prejudice, and seeks to inform journalists about the facts."

Steele concluded: "I whole-heartedly support whatever AMW can do to ensure mutual tolerance and sensible state-to-state relations in the Middle East, as well as among those who write about the region."

Stephen Cole, the main news anchor for Al Jazeera English in London, was the first speaker of the night. "I'm a huge fan of AMW, of its work and, of course, of its leadership," said the veteran broadcaster and former presenter for Sky News, the BBC, ITN and CNN

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He praised AMW "for some excellent recent media reports on how the news is being reported in Britain - excellent research and very well delivered - so thank you for that." Cole described Nashashibi as "a frequent guest on Al Jazeera" who "is always welcome for his careful analysis and articulate debating skills."

The next speaker was David Gardner, the award-winning chief leader writer and associate editor at the Financial Times. He invited the dinner attendees to "congratulate" AMW on "yet another year of the contribution that they've made, which is truly remarkable.

"It's important to remember just why the sort of effort that AMW puts in is so necessary...The pro-Israel lobby employs ferocious tactics. It uses a sort of unilateral, absolutely unrelenting, solipsistic narrative - all this is well-known. Equally well-known is that it needs to be balanced. In Israel, paradoxically, it has that balance. It's actually more outside Israel that it needs one, very much so in the case of the US, but also in the case of the UK."

Gardner added: "It's also important that over these last eight years...a phenomenon like AMW has developed, because I think media coverage of the Middle East has in the past more than now - there's still a problem - notoriously been an area in which there has been very little accountability. The stories are often so complex, or access is so difficult, that people sometimes feel they can get away with retailing almost anything...and they have done. So that issue of accountability is very important, and I think AMW does it increasingly well.

"They also have started branching out in increasingly effective and suggestive ways, moving from quantitative analysis towards qualitative analysis, particularly sensitivity to words, for example. Why is it in one of your last reports that Palestinian violence is so value-laden, whereas Israeli reprisals are treated to words which are antiseptic or anodyne - a massacre against an offensive, an atrocity against an incursion, and so on? The more that sort of approach is taken, the more people will realise that someone is watching, analysing, recording and monitoring. I think that's extremely important...I congratulate you and salute you."

After a performance by award-winning Arab-American comedian Aron Kader, AMW presented its 2008 award for excellence in journalism to renowned British-Somali reporter Rageh Omaar, who presents Witness on Al Jazeera English, is a columnist for the New Statesman, and a former BBC correspondent.

This was in recognition and admiration of "his extraordinary empathy in his coverage" of Arab issues, "the profoundly positive impact it has had," and for being "an icon for countless young journalists, an example of success through passion and compassion, and a testament to the fact that journalism can be an invaluable source of knowledge and understanding, and a powerful force for good," said Nashashibi.

AMW is "so vital" because "it's part of this sense that there's a possibility to change the narrative of how the Arab world is seen and reported," Omaar said after clips were shown of his documentaries An Islamic History of Europe and The Iraq War by Numbers. "For that reason, I'm very, very honoured indeed to have been given this award, so thank you very much."

The night was rounded off with a humorous speech by Times foreign editor Richard Beeston. Although there is a propensity in the Arab world to believe in conspiracy theories, he said, in his career covering events there, he has come to realise that the outlandish is not always the same as the untrue.

H.E. Dr. Sami Khiyami (Syrian Ambassador) and H.E. Inaam Osseiran (Lebanese Ambassador)

Left to right: H.E. Dr. Sami Khiyami (Syrian Ambassador), Muna Nashashibi (AMW), H.E. Inaam Osseiran (Lebanese Ambassador), Sharif Nashashibi (AMW), H.E. Khaled Al Duwaisan (Kuwaiti Ambassador) and Amina Khiyami