Last week, I got the chance to attend a lecture in Washington, DC delivered by Alghad newspaper CEO Mohammad Alayyan on "Developing Media as a Business Model in Jordan." Alayyan raised some very intriguing points while focusing on what he called the "invisible money" hindering the development of independent media. Here is an excerpt from an article I wrote on the lecture:

Mohammad Alayyan Publisher and CEO of the Jordanian independent daily Alghad, Mohammad Alayyan, cited what he referred to as "invisible money" as one of the major obstacles hindering the progress of independent media outlets in the Arab World. Alayyan who is planning to launch Jordan’s first independent terrestrial and satellite TV station, Al Ghad TV, on June 1 made his remarks during a lecture entitled "Developing Media as a Business Model in Jordan" in Washington, D.C., United States, on March 28.

"Historically, investment in media has not been that great because governments have always invested in the media. People were afraid of opening up media [outlets], so basically it created insufficient funds [for] the development of independent media," Alayyan told the audience at a talk at the Human Rights Campaign building. But this has changed since 2001, according to Alayyan, as investments in the media have dramatically increased in the past few years.

However, Alayyan argues that investments are not made in a transparent way. "A lot of invisible money is going into the media and I think this is one of the major obstacles facing independent media in the Arab World," he said.

Source: [International Journalists’ Network]

You can read the full article here.