About al-Sahafiyeen
"Al-Sahafiyeen" is the Arabic word for "journalists" or "the journalists." Arab American journalists, through the National Arab American Journalists Association, are working closely with SPJ to help encourage Arab American journalists to join the SPJ. We have more than 250 Arab Americans who now work in either mainstream American media jobs or in the growing but still small Arab American ethnic news media.
There are now 82 Arab American publications (including 11 magazines) being published in the United States in Arabic and some in Arabic and English serving the estimated (there are no real official numbers) 4.5 million Arabs who are Christian, Muslim and even Jewish, which some people find surprising.
But we are hoping to do several things here.
One is to open the door to the Arab American community through the professional Arab American media.
We also want to encourage Arab Americans to pursue professional journalism careers and to help the Arab American community as a whole better understand American mainstream journalism and the differences between journalism and activism, news reporting and commentary.
We also hope that we can serve ourselves up as a resource on Arab American issues to mainstream journalists who are covering issues and events in the Arab American community, the Arab World, the Islamic World, and the Middle Eastern in general. (There are many groups of people in the Middle East, for example, who are not Arab, such as Assyrians and Iranians), although they share the same religion and cultural similarities.
Plus, as journalists, we are all very proud of our achievements. Sarah Alfaham worked on The Working Press during the recent SPJ Convention in Washington D.C. You can read some of her news reports and the reports of others.
Two of our members, Osama Siblani and Kay Siblani, were recently featured in an article they wrote in the SPJ's The Journalist Magazine which is now out on news stands. The feature describes the steady rise in influence of their weekly newspaper The Arab American News which is based in Dearborn, just outside of Detroit, Michigan.
When many of us were younger, we were moved to pursue journalism as a career after watching the Watergate Hearings on Television and learning about the work of Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post. There were very few Arab Americans in journalism who were known at the time and who were role models. The dean of Arab American journalists is Helen Thomas. But it wasn't easy for these earlier Arab American pioneers. Today, though, things are changing.
Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post, and one of our SPJ-Arab Journalists Steering Committee members, won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2004 and is a role model for today's Arab American youth who are looking at Arab American journalism as a career choice.
Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, there were seven Arab American newspapers being published in Chicago, for example. All but one closed. Today, there are three based in Chicago and every month we learn about new publications like the Arabic Times Newspaper which launched this month in Jacksonville, Florida and published by Dalia Mousa. Jacksonville has a large Arab American community. I also launched the National Arab American Times Newspaper last month to help broaden our news sharing and networking. Although things have improved somewhat since Sept. 11, 2001 for Arab Americans, it is still not easy to publish an Arab American ethnic newspaper. Many of our steering committee members and SPJ-Arab Journalist Members publish Arab American newspapers and magazines.
Many of us have been SPJ members for years. We hope our involvement with SPJ will make a positive contribution to all that SPJ represents in terms of helping to promote professional journalism.
Thanks
The SPJ-Arab Journalists Steering Committee