At ARIJ25 Forum: Arab Academics Discuss Integrating ARIJ’s Investigative and Fact-Checking Curricula
December 6, 2025
During its 18th annual Forum, held from December 5th to 7th, 2025, in Amman-Jordan, ARIJ, through its Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN), hosted a dedicated meeting on the second day, that convened Arab university professors to deliberate on how to integrate ARIJ’s established guides on Investigative Journalism and Fact-Checking into university curricula across the Arab world.
The meeting, attended by more than 20 professors from 20 Arab media faculties across 9 Arab countries, was moderated by Dr. Arwa Kooli, the author of the Fact-Checking Guide and a specialist in fact-checking and investigative journalism. It was also attended by ARIJ’s chairperson Dr. Zahera Harb, ARIJ’s board member Dr. Jad Melki in addition to ARIJ’s Director General, Rawan Damen.
The meeting witnessed consensus on the need to integrate both guides professionally and practically within Arab media faculties.
Proposals focused on the importance of leveraging ARIJ’s field expertise through various mechanisms. Dr. Ramez Abu Hasira, Dean of the Faculty of Media at Middle East University in Jordan, called for an ARIJ expert or specialist to teach courses, and for students to receive a specialized professional certificate in fact-checking and investigative journalism upon completing a course or a diploma.
Dr. Samar Yahya from Jordan also suggested that ARIJ be among the institutions that universities collaborate with in issuing training certificates for students.
For her part, Dr. Sahar Khalifa from the Iraqi University proposed gradually integrating fact-checking into several existing and flexible courses as a first step to overcome bureaucratic constraints.
Professors, including Dr. Salma Alkowaffy, Head of the Digital Journalism Department at Misurata University in Libya, emphasized the need for ARIJ to focus on training academics in both fields.
Dr. Zahera Harb, highlighted ِARIJ’s willingness to work with the professors on integrating the content of both guides into upcoming academic semesters across Arab universities through establishing partnerships, focusing on training, and facilitating communication between trained journalists and students.
The ARIJ Investigative Journalism Guide offers a comprehensive methodology across nine chapters, covering the definition of investigative reporting, hypothesis building, managing timelines and source maps, working with open and human sources, creating the masterfile, writing investigations, conducting fact-checking, and building impact.
ARIJ’s AFCN’s Fact-Checking Teaching Guide presents four main pillars, including course design for teaching key pre- and post-publication fact-checking concepts and essential verification tools, integrating fact-checking into other courses, addressing major teaching challenges and how to navigate them, in addition to practical resources and tools that enhance the quality of fact-checking education in universities.
