Amman – October 2025

As part of its ongoing efforts to protect investigative journalists from legal consequences, ARIJ organized a specialized webinar titled “Publish with Confidence: Shielding Investigative Articles from Legal Threats Before Publication,” on Monday, October 20, 2025. The session was supported by and in partnership with Reporters Shield and attended by around 50  journalists, half of them females. 

This session was part of a series of events leading up to the ARIJ 18th Annual Forum. It aimed to equip journalists in the Arab region with legal knowledge to protect them from lawsuits and strengthen the environment for independent investigative publishing.

The session was presented by a specialized lawyer in media and publication law, Khalid Khleifat, and moderated by ARIJ’s editor, Farah Jallad. Over the course of two hours, the webinar explored essential legal protection steps across the planning, investigation, and publishing stages.

Key topics included:

• Understanding Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and their use as intimidation tools to suppress freedom of expression.
• The importance of legal thinking during the editing process, including obtaining pre-approval from sources and publishing their statements accurately.
• How to create a pre-publication legal checklist that considers privacy, defamation, and editorial balance laws.
• Differentiating between legitimate criticism and defamation, and respecting the boundaries between public and private life.
• Journalistic practices that may lead to legal accountability, such as lack of balance, spreading rumors and violating publication bans.
  

Khleifat emphasized that legal review is not a post-publication step but an integral part of the editorial process, especially when working on sensitive and complex issues. He also shared real-world examples of abusive legal cases and the lessons learned from them.

Through this webinar, ARIJ seeks to provide a legal and knowledge-based shield for journalists in the Arab world and contribute to a safer and more independent publishing environment for investigative journalism.

Participants’ Reflections:

1. “The training was in-depth and rich with information, especially the legal aspect, which is often lacking among many journalists.”
   — Hassan Harkoun, Morocco, Male
   
2. “The training provided a comprehensive overview of key topics that help journalists avoid legal accountability — areas I was previously unfamiliar with.”
   — Fatima Gharib, Lebanon, Female
   
3. “It shed direct light on core issues journalists face due to weak legal awareness — something that has cost many colleagues dearly.”
   — Youssef Sabri, Kenya, Male