Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar hosted Al Jazeera journalists Clayton Swisher and Bassam Bounenni on Tuesday in a panel discussion entitled “Inside Al Jazeera Now: A Revolution in Journalism?”.
Clayton Swisher (second left) speaks as Bounenni (second right) looks on
SFS-Qatar faculty Mohamed Zayani and Gary Wasserman moderated the panel, which focused on the role media and Al Jazeera in particular are playing in recent events and ongoing protests across the region.
Bounenni, working with Al Jazeera since 2005, kicked off the panel by discussing and contrasting his experiences reporting on protests in Tunisia in 2008 and 2011.
He noted Al Jazeera’s efforts in the recent protests to contact young witnesses posting videos online and to build a network of contacts on the ground in a country Reporters Without Borders ranks 164th out of 178 countries in its press freedom index.
“I think people come to Al Jazeera because we have editorial courage,” said Swisher, who focused on his work on the Palestine Papers - thousands of internal documents from Israeli-Palestinian negotiations released by Al Jazeera in January of this year.
Swisher, a Georgetown alumnus and reporter with Al Jazeera since 2007, also discussed Al Jazeera’s newly-launched Transparency Unit, which allows internet users to submit content and “story tips” to the international news network for review and possible coverage.
The panel was sponsored by the American Studies Program and the Office of Communications.
