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21 Oct 2017
<div><strong>22 Oct. 2017 </strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Commencement Speech to the Eighth Intake</strong><br />
<strong>Jordan Media Institute</strong><br />
<strong>Dr. Ebtehal Al-Khateeb</strong><br />
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Good evening,<br />
I would like to start by thanking the Jordan Media Institute, represented by its founder, Her Royal Highness Princess Rym Ali; its Dean, Prof. Basim Tweissi; Board of Directors; faculty members; and, certainly, its distinguished students for hosting me and giving me the opportunity to address them as they take a new, significant step in their life. I am truly overjoyed to be here with you today and to salute the standard bearers and future makers, the graduates of the Jordan Media Institute.<br />
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Eighth Intake: You have made it! Congratulations!<br />
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I congratulate you on your graduation, on earning a degree, and making a fresh beginning. This is a nostalgic beginning that marks the end of a wonderful time and the conclusion of an enjoyable chapter in life. It draws the curtain on this beautiful world, which hides behind the gates of schools, institutes and universities. This world has always been different: quiet, safe and bountiful. Under its wing, we all feel stronger; and during its years, we all read avidly. We talk, but sometimes we argue; we strike up friendships, but sometimes we fight; and we show love, but sometimes we get angry. Under the watchful eyes of our professors, we set out, we dream and we plan. We feel safe because they do the worrying on our behalf. We promise ourselves that we will fly as soon as they lift their guardianship. During these years, we own the world; we change it; we warn it against our impending journey. We will become ambassadors, ministers, astronauts, ballet dancers and outstanding journalists. We will all become celebrities. We are all confident that we will make it.<br />
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How wonderful beginnings are! All beginnings are fascinating. They abound in promises, vows and dreams that we nearly forget once we face life and reality; when we look for a job and deal with the manager sitting at the top of the hierarchy; and when we experience the daily routine of life, worry about providing for our families and complain about traffic and high prices. How wonderful beginnings are! How magnificent the high ceiling of aspirations is!<br />
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After obtaining my BA degree, I had decided to introduce Arab theater to the world. Upon earning my MA degree, I had resolved to become an actress on stage, and deliver the best representation of Lady Macbeth’s character in the history of theater. After receiving my PhD degree, I had insisted on owning my own theater where I would present all genres of daring theatrical arts in spite of any censorship.<br />
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Today, your generous invitation for me to share with you this day of beginning is reminiscent of my exquisite list of hopes and dreams. Although I have yet to fulfill my promises, I have never lost sight of this list. It is still fresh. I can feel it in my heart, as is the case with every beginning. Having already taken this journey before you, we know how brutal it is to get used to dreams, how unpleasant worry is and how cruel responsibility is. The latter extinguishes hopes, aspirations and dreams. However, I urge you not to forget this moment and not to let go of your present feelings. You must not let the daily routine of life turn you into realists who give up on their dreams and hopes of owning the world. Do not surrender to the fast rhythm of life and do not allow it to make you forget this day, with its happiness and aspirations. Future success will be defined and renewed by the renewal of dreams and holding on to moments of hope and determination – the determination to embrace ambitions and achieve goals, no matter how unrealistic they seem to be. Is there anything more beautiful than noble, mad goals?<br />
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But you are another story, another level of noble madness, as it were. You are media professionals; you are journalists. You are the ones who will shape the face of the world. You will draw its features and even create its facts. Every word you say, every picture you broadcast, every commentary you add; every black letter typed on a white paper that will enter people's homes and be held by their hands, will shape the world in the eyes and conscience of your readers and followers. No doubt, you have a heavy burden. You not only report news; in fact, you shape the truth. You paint a picture. With your words, you set the scene for actions and reactions. By choosing which news you are going to carry, which words you are going to use, which pictures you are going to have as background to your reports; by choosing a smile, a frown, or a tear in your eyes while showing the news, you will be saying more than what you are going to say. You will create a reality for people who do not see it with their own eyes. You will shape the truth for followers who do not have direct access to it. You are the word between continents, the picture between remote geographic spots, and the links between times and cultures.<br />
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You will report the color of the sky over Amman to a small village in southern France; you will tell an isolated family in a city in Oklahoma about the smell of olive orchards in Palestine; and you will inform the teenagers of San Diego, who are swimming at its beaches, about bombings on Rasheed Street in Baghdad. You are the most dangerous link and the deeper bond in this life – a life that is taking shape in the digital media world. Its wars break out, its disputes are resolved, and its revolutions erupt on electronic pages and by the pens of its users. So what are you going to make of this world?<br />
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There was a time when the world was not aware of facts pertaining to the Palestine question. In those years, I remember how I was amazed and hurt as I heard and watched how facts were "fabricated." How the world's main news channel would report news from Palestine saying: "In Tel Aviv, three Israelis were killed, and 100 Palestinians died." Killed and died: The difference between these two words shaped the mindset of the American people for many decades vis-à-vis the Palestine issue, making them believe that Israelis get killed, but Palestinians simply die. Thus, the image was transformed subtly, from a state of occupation in which Palestinians are killed and displaced, into a state of terrorism suffered by Israelis from Palestinian violence. A word that is repeated every day; images that are carefully chosen, and others that are neutralized with even greater care – they created a "truth" that has been imposed on the world.<br />
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But you are here to change these cold-war style gimmicks. You are here because facts are more important than interests. You are here because nothing is more wonderful and beautiful than a full picture, no matter how painful it is. It is you. With every fact you reveal, every story you tell, and every picture you take, you reveal pain, you defeat injustice, and you save a human soul. It is you who are typing these powerful letters on impartial paper. You bring about a revolution; you tip the scales; you reveal something hidden; and you provide a piece of information. In this time, is there a more potent weapon, and is there a more effective remedy than that of information?<br />
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The equation appears to be simple and direct. However, people in charge of it have to make the toughest choices: there are facts that, if not revealed, cause people to die. On the other hand, there are facts that, if revealed, cause people to die. There are words that, if used, make the truth more glaring, and there are words that, if used, make the truth dimmer. One piece of news could create presence; another could create absence. Some words create features; others distort features.<br />
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Here you are always standing at the threshold of the truth you are investigating. Every day, every hour, and maybe every moment, you are faced with these difficult questions and tough choices. You are aware that the truth will only be the picture that you draw before people's eyes. This picture is the one that might remain in their conscience and minds for decades, and perhaps centuries.<br />
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Where is the truth? What is the truth? How do we express the truth? Truth or interest? Truth or happiness? Truth or safety? These are the challenges of your everyday job. These philosophical questions, which humanity has been grappling with for centuries, will be with you every hour of your work. You will create the next truth and the world that will be shaped by it. So which truth would you like to experience and which world would you choose to make?<br />
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Just like a doctor, but in a deeper and more intense fashion, the stories of a journalist never end, his studies never cease, and his role can never be abandoned. In an article published by Time magazine headlined "The Story Behind the Most Haunting Images of Rohingya Exodus," the writer and photographer Kevin Frayer, says the following about his firsthand experience in documenting the tragedy:<br />
"Leaving was not easy. I had gone with the hope of making a contribution to telling the story, yet you always feel like you never photograph enough. Or see enough. Or hear enough. There is an urgency for us to keep providing strong visual information that ensures these people are not forgotten. But in the end you leave because your visa runs out.<br />
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"I believe strong journalism can create pressure to force governments in good conscience to make decisions – the right decisions – to help people at their most desperate time. The relentless flow of information to the masses is a powerful way to provoke outrage and discussion."<br />
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We the readers, ordinary people, often forget this. We forget that you are not only journalists undermining your sense of wellbeing and sometimes risking your lives to force governments to make humane and conscientious decisions. You are not only soldiers whose mission is to relay suffering and pursue the truth, wherever it is; you are also human beings who have emotions, feelings, and nerves. We, the rest who receive your services, forget the tenderness of these emotions and feelings. We fail to appreciate the injuries you suffer. For example, we read a sad story in a newspaper or watch some graphic footage on television without heeding the fact that the price of this story was a broken heart, that the road to the footage was strewn with pain and hurt feelings, and that the journalist who came back with this story is a different person from the one who went to look for it. <br />
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I personally learned this lesson the hard way when I assumed the character of a journalist in my journey with Layan, a humanitarian foundation, to check on Syrian refugees who crossed Nahr al-Bared all the way to Tripoli at the start of the Syrian crisis under trying circumstances. I did not come back the same person. I will never be the person I was again. Layan had chosen a group of activists to take part in the journey and asked us to play the role of journalists. It informed us that our mission would solely be to highlight this issue and that we should heed the fact that our main role was to convey the tragedy to the world, and not to save all those whom we are going to encounter. Our campaign managers stressed to us the need for sticking to the boundaries of our mission and not getting psychologically attached to every case we are going to meet. Otherwise, we will not be able to achieve our objective and communicate the message. I knew that it was a difficult mission, but what was awaiting us was unimaginable. The sound of the car door closing when the mission ended still pierces my ear like a hot iron rod. The small beautiful faces bidding us farewell for the last time. I looked at them, and they at me. The road increased the distance between us. I carry a lot of stories and pictures, while they carry inexhaustible sadness. I ask myself: Are they going to survive until next winter? How cruel and ugly it is to have to ask such a question! How can we return to our normal life after asking this question?<br />
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We often forget that your work is not an office that you leave with your papers. Your work is life as it unfolds; it is human beings, feelings, sorrows, and hopes; it is stories and pictures; it is joy and sadness; it is every day and every minute. We forget that your work is your life, which you share with all mankind and you change your life in favour of their stories.<br />
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Here, I would like to conclude with a few words from an article by Bret Stephens, published in The New York Times on 24 September 2017 under the headline "The Dying Art of Disagreement." He says:<br />
"But no country can have good government, or a healthy public square, without high-quality journalism – journalism that can distinguish a fact from a belief and again from an opinion; that understands that the purpose of opinion isn't to depart from facts but to use them as a bridge to a larger idea called "truth"; and that appreciates that truth is a large enough destination that, like Manhattan, it can be reached by many bridges of radically different designs. In other words, journalism that is grounded in facts while abounding in disagreements."<br />
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We always go back to the truth, the noblest goal of humanity. The wonderful profession of journalism represents it in its noblest form and seeks it in its most dangerous places. Today, you will receive your degrees from the Jordan Media Institute, which states in its code of ethics that it has the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly Article 19, as a linchpin of its work. It places freedom of opinion and expression, which is stipulated by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration, at the top of the list of the ethics of the profession. It places humanity at the same distance from your consciences where the truth stands.<br />
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You have chosen this path. It is done. You will forever live as noble messengers of the truth, you will make great sacrifices for it, and will form bridges for it and breaths to echo it in order to enlighten consciences and minds, to guarantee rights, and save humanity.<br />
As we stand before you today, we salute you and your great message and noble mission. Fasten your seat belts and get ready for a free fall.<br />
Congratulations, Eighth Intake of 2016-2017.<br />
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