The Open Hands Initiative would like to introduce our new blog series, “Where Are They Now?” Over the next several weeks, we will update our readers on the lives and careers of our fellows from the “Covering a Revolution” Reporting Fellowship in Cairo, as well as the participants of our Youth Ability Summit in Syria.
The following entry is the first of this new series, which highlights Matt Negrin, a top, young journalist from the United States. Here is what he had to say about his experience in Cairo as a Reporting Fellow:
No Press Releases Here: A Washington Reporter Tries Real Journalism
Written by: Matt Negrin
Most of my time during the fellowship in Egypt was spent reporting on Coptic Christians, but on one night, I collided with my world from home, as I found myself interviewing the new American ambassador. Being a Washington reporter, I’m used to the standard political stories — the spin, the power struggles, the tight-lipped officials. It was a big reason why I sought the fellowship, to branch out and write about something completely different and foreign to me.
On that night, though, I sat across from Ambassador Anne Patterson and asked her why she hadn’t yet met with the Muslim Brotherhood, the bloc poised to win a powerful number of parliamentary seats in the upcoming election. I was confident because I had been covering the administration for two years and knew the fears in Congress about the Brotherhood, but I was even more confident because I was doing the interview with another fellow, an Egyptian. Together we were able to come at Patterson from both sides of her world, with our own unique expertise, leaving nothing untouched.
That, I imagine, was what the creators of the fellowship had in mind: reporters from two cultures working hand in hand to produce a result that you wouldn’t be able to get any other way. After just a few days in Cairo, and certainly by the end of the fellowship, I had changed the way I thought about journalism. Western journalism stresses objectivity and being a neutral observer; in Egypt, the rulers censor the press, and the journalists are fighting back. There’s no reason to stay on the sidelines. They deserve the right to print.
Returning to Washington was a bit of a bummer. Everything about politics felt hollow after spending a week in Coptic churches burned in sectarian violence, and in poor villages in which children live in fear of being attacked. Every day I read stories from Egypt, and every day I wish I were still there to see and hear the ripples of a revolution play out in everyday life. I see the bylines of my new Egyptian friends, and I want to hug them and tell them that they’re doing the noblest act of journalism anyone could do, and to be safe.
For years I had yearned to try my hand at foreign reporting, and I viewed the fellowship as a litmus test to determine whether I could do it confidently. What I found was that I was more passionate about the work I produced in those 10 days than anything else I’ve done.
But while I promised myself (and many others) that I would return as well as report from other places around the world, there’s an election in the United States for which I want to stick around. I’m a reporter with ABC News now, writing about all things politics — campaigns, money, transparency, the tea party, and a lot in between. It’ll all collide in November, and even though I’ll have my hands full on election night, I guarantee that I’ll be thinking back to my time in Egypt, where I learned what really matters in journalism, and where a part of me will always be.
“U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson (C) is interviewed by GlobalPost / Open Hands Initiative ‘Covering a Revolution’ reporting fellows Matt Negrin (L) and Reem Abdellatif (R), October 2011. (Elizabeth D. Herman/GlobalPost)” From: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/111018/cairo-journalists-find-strong-allies