Ten Arab editors from seven countries, visiting for three weeks in the United States under the State Department’s auspices are scheduled to meet Monday afternoon in Freedom House in New York with journalists from American Jewish publications and representatives of Jewish communal organizations.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed today at the State Department that the meeting is part of a program for the Arabs that was mainly arranged by the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in conjunction with the Department’s Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs.
The Arab journalists are from Egypt, the Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Syria. However, the JTA was told that while the visitors have been notified of Monday’s and other meetings scheduled for them, they are not under obligation to attend. It was expected, however, that at least the two Egyptian members–Maha Abdel Fatha Hassan, diplomatic editor of Al Akhbar, and Riad Atar, assistant editor-in-chief of Al Ahram–would attend, inasmuch as Egyptians are now accustomed to conversations with Jewish and Israeli journalists.
The JTA was informed that when the program was being arranged last month it was stressed by a high State Department bureau official that “these people have to meet Jewish Americans as one part of the picture in the United States.” (By Joseph Polakoff)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
