The death toll of Palestinian journalists continues to grow as the conditions of those working on the ground continue to deteriorate. The violence on the ground has refocused attention on the importan...
Muamar Orabi
Muamar Orabi is general director and editor-in-chief of Wattan Media Network, an independent Palestinian media organization based in Ramallah that that includes Wattan Media Network (Wattan TV, Wattan FM, and Wattan News Agency), Wattan Institute for Media Research and Future Studies, Wattan Academy for media training and capacity building and Wattan Fact Checking – Fighting Misinformation and Disinformation; Hate Speech and Rumours; and Promoting Media and Digital Literacy – “Daqeeq”.
Since 2000, Orabi has worked toward enhancing the role of independent media through leading Wattan in producing reports and programmes that focus on issues of public concern including sensitive and controversial topics such as public sector corruption, unemployment and highlighting marginalized communities and groups, especially women and youth that are rarely covered by other mainstream Palestinian media outlets. Orabi has a fundamental role to play in designing and managing media campaigns and programmes that focus on marginalized groups, sustainable development, and democracy.
Orabi supervises a team of 75 journalists and employees. He is also responsible for designing and supervising the implementation of TV programmes, news reporting, communication campaigns, and core financial and managerial strategies.
Orabi has a PhD in Media and Constitutional Law, a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies amd Public Health, and a diploma in Conflict Resolution. He has also been an Eisenhower fellow since 2009, and a Responding to Conflict (RTC) fellow in the UK since 2004. Moreover, he is a civil society activist and a board member in several Palestinian civil society organizations.
Under Orabi’s supervision and consultation, Wattan was awarded the Bouazizi (the name refers to the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution) Transparency and Integrity Award in 2011. It was the first time that the Transparency International Organization in Palestine awarded this prestigious prize for a media outlet, noting that the prize has been withheld for the last seven years. Wattan was selected for the prize as a compliment for its programmes that promote democratic values of transparency, integrity, and rule of law.
In 2022, Watten was awarded the Sherine Abu Aqleh Award for Integrity and Transparency from Transparency International Organization - Amman for the Best Investigative Report in Palestine. Furthermore, Wattan was granted several local and regional prizes for its outstanding investigative reports. For example, Wattan won the Press Freedom Award in 2012 granted by the former Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, for conducting an investigative report about the construction permits law in Ramallah that offers unwarranted illegal privileges to big investors. Likewise, Wattan was one of the three media outlets that received an award from Reporters for Arab Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) in 2013. Wattan was selected for its investigative report about Palestinian female workers who are severely exploited in the Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. In the same year, AMIN Media Network granted Wattan the excellence award for enhancing the role of Palestinian women in journalism. A media award was granted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2016 for Wattan’s investigative report about damage to the olive harvest in Palestine.
