Amman – On Friday, December 5, ARIJ 18th annual Forum kicked off in Jordan under the theme “Rise to The Challenge”, with the participation of nearly 2,400 journalists and supporters of investigative and independent journalism from around the world.

All participants have arrived in Amman, with more than 900 colleagues from 50 countries attending in person, in addition to more than 1,500 registered to join virtually.

The forum features 75 speakers (47% of whom are women) taking part in 75 diverse sessions held over three days. The event concludes on Sunday, 7 December, with the announcement of the winners of the 16th annual ARIJ Awards for Arab Investigative Journalism. This year, the competition received 166 investigations from 26 countries.

The opening ceremony also featured the announcement of the Resilience in Journalism Award, an annual prize launched last year to honor a journalist, institution, or group that demonstrates exceptional resilience in the face of challenges. For the second consecutive year, ARIJ presented the award to all journalists in the Gaza Strip, in recognition of their endurance throughout nearly two years of genocidal war.

The award was handed over by ARIJ Chairperson Dr. Zahera Harb to a group of Gaza-based journalists who reported on the atrocities from inside and outside the Strip, receiving it on behalf of all journalists there, and in the presence of representatives from the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders.

Egyptian Award-Winning Author and journalist Omar El Akkad, who is based in the United States, delivered the opening keynote. He is the winner of the 2025 U.S. National Book Award for his book “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This”, which examines Western media coverage of the war on Gaza.

Egyptian Journalists Syndicate Khaled El-Balshy, Head of the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate also delivered a speech in which he called for freeing the press from all imposed restrictions and holding the killers of Palestinian journalists accountable.

While ARIJ’s General Director, Rawan Damen, emphasized that this year’s forum embodies the spirit of challenge and determination to protect journalism and journalists and to continue investigative reporting and fact-checking before and after publication, despite the harsh political and economic conditions facing the region.

The opening also featured the launch of “Bousolah” project, aimed at strengthening capacity and providing professional support for media outlets and fact-checking organizations in the Middle East and North Africa. In addition, the forum announced the book “Engineering of Meaning” by journalist and novelist Abdualla Maksour, which offers practical tips and steps to write better investigations, in-depth reports, and fact-checking reports.

On the second day of the forum, Online-GBV in MENA Bi-Lingual Book will be launched, while on the third day, the Arab Fact-Checkers Network fact-checking curriculum for Arab universities will be unveiled.

Over the past 20 years, ARIJ has trained more than 20,000 journalists, editors, and fact-checkers across the Arab world, and has overseen the production and publication of over 1,000 investigative reports and in-depth investigations. In 2020, it established the first Arab network for fact-checkers, launched the first Arab whistleblowers’ platform in 2021, and in 2024 announced its artificial intelligence strategy to support investigative journalism and fact-checking in the Arab region.