The Near East North Africa and Middle East Media in Society Project is designed to network media practitioners, within the region and the UK, to support professional and cultural development and improve the effectiveness of the media in raising awareness on key social issues, print media, photo journalism, on-line, radio, TV broadcast, animation and cartoons.

Through a of photo/journalism course developed and led by Jenny Mathew, we engaged 8 photojournalists from four Lebanese newspapers in training sessions during March 2007. The work of the trainees composed the content of a publication that portrayed a variety of current social issues in Lebanon through photographs.

Moreover, we commissioned the BBC World Service Trust to undertake a training and consultancy programme with Al- Hayat Pan Arab Newpaper in Riyadh, and carried out a content analysis for Al-Hayat Newspaper in Beirut to improve the coverage of social issues of the Arab Region as per the objective of the Media and Society Project run by the British Council.

We also commissioned the BBC World Service Trust to organise a visit to the UK for a group of 13 young promising journalists from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. The journalists were trained and attended events in the region and the UK whereby they had the opportunity to work together on joint initiatives of mutual interest to support improved awareness of key social issues, create links, and exchange experiences between the UK and their countries.

The project culminated into an exhibition- Lighting Lamps: Cartoons from the Middle East which was hosted and supported by the Guardian Foundation in the UK. The exhibition addressed the controversial work of seven cartoonists from six countries from the Middle East and Near East North Africa.

The exhibition features the work of Mustafa Hussein from Egypt, Imad Hajjaj and Jalal Rifai from Jordan, Zan Studios (represented by Amer Shomali) from Palestine, Yazeed AL-Harathi from Saudi Arabia, and Ali Ferzat from Syria.

The exhibition will open in Lebanon on 8 January at the Lebanese American University, Beirut Campus, Sheikh Zayed Hall at 5.00 p.m. followed by a debate session with Steve Bell at 7.00 p.m.

The exhibition will run at LAU until 18 January then moved to Tripoli to the Safadi Cultural Centre from 23-28 January from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.

Click here to view the cartoons.

For more information about the project, please contact us at general.enquiries@lb.britishcouncil.org.