2004 Elections - U.S. Political System and Practice - Middle East Journalists

July 18-31, 2004, Washington, DC, Raleigh, NC and Boston, Massachusetts
Contact: Washington Foreign Press Center Program Officer: Algis Silas
Telephone: 202-504-6317, Email: Silasa@state.gov

The Washington FPC program officer for the Middle East and North Africa organized a 14-day working reporting tour for a group of nine NEA journalists from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

In Washington, D.C. the group met with political experts to receive an overview of the current political landscape concerning the 2004 U.S. House, Senate and presidential campaigns. The journalists also met with Arab and Muslim American interest groups to discuss the organizations’ roles within their communities in the U.S with respect to the 2004 U.S. election season. 

The journalists’ schedule included meetings with: Stuart Rothenberg, Editor / Publisher of the Rothenberg Political Report; Dan Allen, Director of Communications / National Republican Senatorial Committee; Dr. Nihad Awad, Executive Director and Alaa Bayoumi, Director of Arabic Affairs with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR); and Jennifer Salan, Communications Director of the Arab American Institute. The journalists also visited the Alhurra facilities, the new 24-hour Arabic language news and information satellite television channel funded by the U.S. Government and supervised by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency that oversees all U.S. non-military international broadcasting. The journalists received an overview about Alhurra and Alhurra’s coverage of the 2004 U.S. Elections from Mouafac Harb, the Director for Alhurra.

In Raleigh, North Carolina some of the visits included meeting with Ferrel Guillory, Senior Fellow with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who gave an overview of the current political situation of North Carolina and Southern politics with respect to the 2004 U.S. elections; meeting with Barbara Allen, the North Carolina Democratic Party Chair to hear the Democrat Party perspective about the local, state and presidential campaigns in North Carolina; meeting with Doug Heye, Communications Director for the Richard Burr for U.S. Senate Campaign to hear the Republican campaign perspective about the North Carolina U.S. Senate race; meeting with David Mills, the Executive Director of The Common Sense Foundation, who presented an overview of the foundation, its issues of concern and an overview of the political landscape in North Carolina from the liberal perspective; meeting with John Hood, the President and Chairman of The John Locke Foundation to receive an overview about the foundation and to discuss the current political landscape in North Carolina from the conservative perspective. The journalists also visited the North Carolina State Capitol Building, the Legislative Building and met with Democrat Governor Mike Easley’s press secretary to get an overview of the state political situation from the governor’s perspective.

Journalists concluded their working reporting tour by covering the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. During the convention, the journalists had an opportunity to meet and interview 11 of the 49 Arab American delegates to the convention. The journalists also visited the Republican National Committee’s war room, in Boston, to observe the G.O.P. activities during their opponent’s convention and to hear the Republican perspective about the Democrat presidential and vice presidential nominees.