Established in 2022, The New Arab (TNA) Investigative Desk digs into impactful international stories that originate from the MENA/SWANA region and its diasporas. Themes include, but are not limited to, corporate and governmental corruption, human and animal rights, environmental damage, organised crime, technological surveillance, arms trade and lobbying.

Contributors are expected to articulate a clear-cut hypothesis and explain how they would corroborate it. Besides being involved in the fact-checking process, the Investigative Desk provides different kinds of support for the development of these projects:

• Access to region and country-specific databases (litigation, company registers, etc.)
• Ad-hoc purchase of high-resolution satellite imagery
• Remuneration for preliminary research that is necessary to structure hypotheses, in addition to remuneration for approved projects, and coverage of expenses
• Support in filing Freedom of Information Requests in the UK, EU, US as well as MENA/SWANA countries - Support with OSINT investigative work
• Support in creating visual complements such as infographics, graphs, illustrations, etc.
• Legal reviews
• Risk assessments 
• Coverage of fees when applying for awards
• Promotion and outreach

If you wish to pitch ideas for long-form investigations, please fill in the related forms (available below in English and Arabic) and send them to Investigative Editor Andrea Glioti (andrea.glioti@newarab.com).

For sensitive leads, encryption is strongly recommended: you can set up a free account with Proton or Tuta and email us at thenewarab@tutanota.com.

In addition to long-form output, The New Arab Investigative Desk also produces shorter 'Fact Check' articles that seek to verify the accuracy of news reports.

Lastly, under the public interest-driven category 'For the Record', we publish inconclusive evidence that can inform future investigative efforts.

Award-winning and shortlisted investigations:

"Syrian airline, Haftar's army profit from human smuggling" won the 2024 Trace Prize for Investigative Reporting. The investigation had also been supported and published by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ).

"How nonprofits crowdfund for ethnic cleansing in West Bank" was shortlisted among the top ten written investigations at the 2025 Amnesty Media Awards.

"The vanishing diaspora of Syria's doctors" was shortlisted among the top ten entries under the category "Refugee Reporting" at the 2024 One World Media Awards. The investigation had also been supported and published by ARIJ. 

"Philip Morris quietly secures major stake in Egypt's tobacco" was shortlisted among the four finalists at the 2025 Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships Award (which is part of the Online Journalism Awards). The investigation had been co-published with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and The Examination among others. The same investigation was part of a package of tobacco stories that placed third in the Best Business Reporting category at the 2025 Eppy Awards.