Data Journalism Diploma

Since June of 2020, social media platforms have been buzzing with the hashtag “The Backbones.” While some may think it’s related to a health or medical condition, in reality, the term refers to a statement made by the Palestinian Minister for Women’s Affairs, Amal Hamad, in her justification for appointing her nephew as her personal assistant (in conservative or religious societies women should not interact closely with outsiders without the presence of a close relative or someone that shares blood ties or ‘Backbones’ as they are referred to in some Arab countries)

This data-driven investigation documents that the water deficit in the West Bank has reached 58 million cubic meters, and tests of samples of the Israeli “Ein Gedi” water sold in Palestine revealed contamination and bacteria levels that exceeded the permissible levels, which negatively affects human health when drunk in big quantities.

This data-driven investigation documents how sports centres in Egypt neglect women, which causes them to be unable to practice sports activities in them, especially for those under 18 years old.

This data-driven investigation documents the role of freight transport vehicles in the occurrence of accidents, especially fatal ones, on the Desert Highway in Jordan between January 2017 and November 2020, during which the Desert Highway Rehabilitation Project was implemented. The investigation also covers the factors that may be linked to the increased risk of the presence of these vehicles on this highway, such as maintenance work, transfers, and mixing of trucks with small vehicles.

Ten years have passed since the revolution in Egypt against the Mubarak regime which rattled the Egyptian political and social realities. One of the many shortcomings unraveled by that revolution was the discovery of administrative and legal violations that have marred contracts and transactions with foreign investors. This led to a series of financial compensations settlement cases that have cost the country billions of dollars due to international arbitration.

يوثق تحقيق 'جمهورية الخوف من بوست' المدفوع بالبيانات، ارتفاع نسبة الاستدعاء والتحقيق لناشطين وmale journalists ومواطنين في لبنان بسبب التعبير عن رأيهم السياسي والاجتماعي والاقتصادي والديني في منشورات على السوشيل ميديا خلال السنوات الأخيرة، خاصة خلال عامي 2019 و2020 اللذان شهدا حراكاً شعبياً وأزمة اقتصاديّة وسياسيّة حادة.

We suffer a lot in our daily battle to access potable water. We bear the full costs, because if we didn’t, we would never have water. We can no longer take this! If you go into people’s houses here, you would wonder how anyone manages to live

Yemeni fishermen used to sail off shores that are more than 2,500 kilometers long. The shores stretch across two seafronts extending from the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea, including Bab Al-Mandab strait. For hundreds of years, if not more, the ancestors of Sami Merhi and other fishermen sailed without restrictions, in search of their livelihood.

This investigation reveals that farmers use banned pesticides in agricultural production, which is harmful to health and reduces the quality of the production hence the decline in agricultural exports, in light of the government’s poor oversight.

This investigation documents the continuation of the Egyptian government's construction of power stations during the period from 2014 to June 2020, with foreign and local loans, despite Egypt's achieving a surplus in electricity; this wastes billions of EGPs annually

Egypt has lost around 350 thousands athletes over the course of a decade, which is equal to more than a third of its total active sportsmen for various reasons according to this investigation

يكشف هذا التحقيق، نهج بعض الأكاديميين في شراء بعض 'البحوث العلمية'، من دون تدقيق وتحكيم علمي؛ بغرض نيل الترقيات والدرجات العلمية، عبر 'مجلات علمية'، تسعى فقط وراء الربح المادي.

This investigation documents the increase in the numbers of pedestrians’ injuries and fatalities recorded on east Cairo roads undergoing renovation or expansion works due the failure of health and safety measures applied by the Ministry of Local Development that could prevent deaths. This could be through the erection of speed bumps, pedestrian crossings lanes, traffic lights or providing pedestrian bridges.

The data investigation reveals an increase in the expropriation of real estate of Egyptian citizens without compensating them with what is approved by the expropriation law.

Umm Bilal, is a Lebanese woman living in Tripoli north of the country. Her husband has brain cancer and her son is completely paralyzed since his birth. Umm Bilal has to suspend her husband's chemotherapy until she is able to put together the money to pay for the session that he needs twice a month. Before the crisis, each session used to cost LBP450,000 [approximately $300 before the devaluation of the Lebanese Pound]. It has now jumped to LBP750,000 (around $40 based on Oct 2021 exchange rates).

Over twenty years, Successive Egyptian governments have announced at least 6 plans and projects to develop and modernize the country’s railway network with a budget of approximately $880 millions earmarked for their execution. Yet, the plans and the tens of million dollars allocated to them failed to achieve those goals.

This investigation documents cases of Egyptian doctors who had applied to receive the vaccine but died before getting a dose

On June 1, 2021, Medien Al-Zubaidi found himself without a job when he received his notice of termination from the textile and spinning factory where he worked in Irbid, 90 kilometres away from the capital Amman. He believes that personal differences between him and his supervisor in the factory led to his dismissal, after his failure to raise the matter with the Chinese factory manager. He was denied the chance to complain as the company translator was not allowed to convey Al-Zubaidi’s grievance.

مريم حداد، الثانية بين خمسة أشقاء، يعيشون جميعاً مع ذويهم في شقة بمنطقة جسر السويس، شرقي مدينة القاهرة؛ لكل منهم عالمه الخاص الذي يخرج منه عندما تجتمع الأسرة في أوقات متباعدة، إما في إحدى حدائق منطقة مصر الجديدة (شرقي القاهرة)، أو على كورنيش النيل.

Although women and girls menstruate for most of their lives, menstrual sanitary products, such as feminine hygiene pads are not considered basic health products in Jordan. This subjects them to taxation, which raises the price of these essential items for girls and women, pushing them sometimes to resort to less expensive alternatives, which could expose them to serious health problems.

It is a hazy and cloudy morning, and the smell of smoke fills the air as it reaches sixty-two-year-old Ijlal Ibrahim* in Imbaba, in the Giza governorate. The smoke infiltrated her house from the fire that was started in a garbage landfill in the empty land adjacent to her house. As a result, Ijlal had a bout of severe coughing and suffocation.

The Lumiere brothers, when they invented the cinema projector in 1895, could not have guessed that their creation would spawn an industry that today is worth over a hundred billion US dollars a year. And they could not have imagined that when they presented the first ever cinema show in the Arab region and Africa - at “The Café Zawani” in Alexandria in November 1896, less than a year after the first film screening in Paris - that this new industry would take root in Egypt, and that it would play a prominent role in its modern history, as one of the most significant forms of its soft power.

In this investigation, we analyzed data on forest fires from 2012 to 2022, we seek to monitor the rate of spread of forest fires and their distribution according to the regions of Morocco and the areas that they consumed.

The decline in water transfer from the source countries of Turkey and Iran due to the construction of dams and the mismanagement of water resources nationally, have all contributed to a decrease in agricultural land and an increase in desertification, consequently leading to the migration of residents and a drop in the production of crops that covered most of the needs of the local Iraqi market in the past

This investigative report reveals a growth in smuggling activities of multiple forms across the Lebanon-Syria border using illegal crossing points. These points have not been shut down, closed or controlled, even after the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. There has simply been a change in the 'players' and those controlling the crossings, especially on the Syrian side. To prepare this report we conducted field trips and gathered testimonies from those involved.

This investigation shows that in Morocco “reduced” sentences are being handed down in cases involving child rape – what is known as “indecent assault of a minor”. Suspended sentences are also being given, which means that perpetrators do not face justice. Families of victims are left in despair, and in some cases avoid the legal route to redress for fear of social stigma.

This investigation shows how, between 2011 and 2017, Syrian women and girls were arrested on fabricated charges of terrorism or of being linked to wanted individuals. Other women were held without charge or used either as bargaining chips or as a way to blackmail their families and pressure them to hand over people wanted by the authorities. These female detainees suffered harsh interrogations inside Syrian security centres, and were systematically tortured using electric shocks, beatings, sexual assault, and psychological intimidation to break their will.