Middle East and North Africa

Manar Fayyad Jibrin graduated from Bethlehem University with a major in English Literature and a minor in translation. She has worked in several organizations in Bethlehem, including as an administrative assistant and a sponsorship officer in Children's Village-SOS. Manar then moved to work as a translator and editor for the Middle East Media Center ( IMEMC.org). During that time, she also worked as a reporter for Free Speech Radio News. After moving to the West Bank city of Ramallah, she worked as a translator in the newly-founded Palestinian Newspaper, "Palestine Times". Manar then moved back to Bethlehem in September 2007 to work in the IMEMC as a translator. She is enrolled in the Masters in Translation & Interpretation program in the nearby Al Quds University.

Ghassan Bannoura is from the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank. He has worked in media since 2003, starting with local radio stations and TV stations and then moving to work at the IMEMC.org. Ghassan has completed training programs in Media and Newscast management and production. He holds a degree in management from Bethlehem University.

David Enders is a New York-based freelance journalist who has spent most of the last four years in Iraq and has written for Men's Journal, Mother Jones and The Nation magazines, as well as the (London) Sunday Times, Washington Times and other newspapers. His first book, "Baghdad Bulletin," an account of the first year of the occupation and the English-language magazine Enders co-founded in Baghdad, is available from the University of Michigan Press. Read his blog at: http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/death_of_a_nation/

Born and raised in Baghdad, reporter and translator Hiba Dawood has worked for various international media outlets including McClatchy, Christian Science Monitor and WNYC for their show The Next Big Thing. She worked as a freelance reporter for The Nation, The British Independent, CBS (60 Minutes), The Progressive and many others. She worked as a production assistant and translator on feature documentary The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair. Hiba Dawood has reported through the war since 2004 from in and outside Iraq. The International Women's Media Foundation, The Courage in Journalism winner, Hiba Dawood freelances currently for United Press International reviewing, daily, Iraq press and reporting on the war from an Iraqi's point of view.

Iraq affairs reporter Salam Talib is an Iraqi computer engineer who began working for FSRN in 2003. He has helped to file more then 500 stories from the ground in Iraq as he worked with most of the FSRN freelance reporters that worked in Iraq 2003-2005. He recently completed graduate studies at San Fransisco State University in the computer engineering department.

Rami Al-Meghari has worked in the media field since 2000. He has worked as a correspondent, a features writer, and an editor-in-chief of an English language website. Rami has contributed to several other English language online media sites, including; electronicintifada.net, palestinechronicle.com, imemc.org, aljazeerah.info and maannews.net. He hold a B.A. in English from a Gaza university and has attended several training programs, including a 2-month long media program at the United Nations in New York City. His blog is at: http://ramiofgaza.wordpress.com/

Since taking up journalism full-time in 2001, Jackson Allers has traveled extensively and worked in all mass media contexts - radio, print, on-line, and television. He has earned several awards for his radio work in the United States [2003 NFCB - National Federation of Community Broadcasting Golden Reel "Silver Reel" – Best national documentary – "9/11: A Remembrance], and has spent considerable time as a media specialist in areas of high diplomacy [Chief of Radio for the UN Mission in Kosovo and International Media Adviser for the Kosovo Ombudsman], as an editor and as a media literacy trainer.

Saideh Jamshidi is an Iranian-American reporter started working for FSRN in 2005. Saideh got her bachelor’s degree in Journalism from University of Washington in Seattle and her Economics degree from University of Azad in Tehran. Saideh published her first article in one of the reformist metropolitan newspapers in Iran in 1992 and has covered variety of issues including women’s rights, freedom of speech, Iran’s nuclear ambitions both in Iran and in the United States. Saideh is the member of Asian-American Journalist Association . Saideh lives in Chicago with her husband and plays Tar, an Iranian musical instrument. Saideh’s biggest hope is to cover permanent peace resolution between Israelis and Palestinians some time soon.