The Hostwriter Ambassadors Summit conclude by emphasizing the strengthening of cross-border journalism

SIRAJ – In the presence of 28 professional and investigative journalists from around the world, the summit of the HostwriterAmbassadors in Warsaw, Poland,  27th to 28th September, discussed the promotion of cross-border journalism and investigations in order to consolidate this type of journalism and cooperate with the journalists who have experience in this field.

Hostwriter.org is a media organization, and an electronic space of more than 3,000 journalists and writers in various fields around the world, aiming to create links of cooperation and networking among journalists to accomplish cross-border stories and investigations.

The organization selected recently 28 journalists to represent and communicate its vision and objectives to journalists and media professionals in their respective countries and regions. At its first Ambassadors Summit, the network focused on the need to enhance the role of cross-border investigations and to conduct cross-team and network investigations, as that has a great impact on the audience.

During intensive training workshops, a number of media experts and journalists provided tips and guidance to enhance the skills of journalists interested in cross-border storytelling, as well as highlighting the difficulties and risks of this type of investigation, in addition to proposals to avoid risks and conduct investigations in professional and global ways.

Mohammad Bassiki, the founder of the Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ) emphasized that his participation in the Summit of Ambassadors is an important opportunity for those who want to enhance their skills and expertise in the field of cross-border investigations. “This type of investigation is very new in the Arabic region. There is a huge need for specialized training and a lot of networking with journalists from other countries”.

One of the main objectives of SIRAJ is to produce cross-border investigations about Syria, and create a network with journalists to produce team-oriented stories; accordingly the summit was an important opportunity for unit and for journalists who collaborate with it.

At the summit, there were ad hoc sessions and lengthy discussions, during which the  Ambassadors and the experts provided advices to develop the HostWriter platform, develop verification tools, and adopt the best means of cooperation as well as channels for networking among journalists to initiate cross-border investigative reports.