OMAR CHATRIWALAA JOURNALIST WHO TELLS IT LIKE IT ISBy Lynne-Ann Abrahams

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Khaleejesque caught up with Omar Chatriwala, co-founder of Doha News, Qatar’s first digital news outlet and executive producer of @AJ+, Al Jazeera’s digital channel.

He just about had time for a quick coffee, speaking to us about his new focus and some of the passions he (tries) to make time for.

Chatriwala is energetic, a quick thinker, a curious mind and his ideas can clearly bridge many different media streams. He is a seriously talented communicator and given his success and the ease at which he uses the internet, television, print, and photography to report news stories, I’m doubtful if there’s a media form he’d have difficulty with if he were to try his hand at it.

Born a cosmopolitan family in New Orleans, his dad emigrated from Bombay

and it was in Texas that his father met and married Chatriwala’s mom, who is of Hispanic origin. Traveling might well be in Chatriwala's genes. He bounced around the States for a bit; Texas, where he studied journalism, and California. He then ticks off the countries he’s lived in; Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar - where he has spent the last eight years.

He likes traveling, he admits, and references trips to Lebanon, South Africa, where he visited Johannesburg and Durban, as well as Jordan.

With @AJ+ being based in San Francisco, it took a while to get the team established and meant frequent trips back and forth. But with the team now in place, Chatriwala spends less time on the road. Which he thinks is not a bad thing for the moment. With two young kids to keep him busy, there are other ways to stay

stimulated rather than traveling, he muses. In fact, he advises me that the best way for anyone to keep stimulated is to keep simply doing interesting things.

I wonder how he manages with a young family and juggling several projects including Doha News. Though he admits to enjoying a good coffee, I doubt if that’s the real source of his energy.

Chatriwala co-founded Doha News with his wife and fellow American journalist, Shabina Khatri. The two had met in the States before moving to Doha together. They started Doha News in early 2009 and, finding themselves in completely unchartered territory, have since turned the site into a ‘go-to’ online source of local news in Qatar and breaking stories in the region.

Chatriwala’s excitement when he speaks

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For more information on Omar Chatriwala, visit www.instagram.com/omarchatriwala

about @AJ+, where he is Executive Producer, is clear. The channel was born in December 2013, after a period of extensive preparations and planning, in response to the growing popularity of online news content among young people.

One of the stories which still stays with him involved juxtaposing images of the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival with images of a “red carpet of blood” in the Gaza strip. The story was a sharp reminder of the Israeli bombing in Gaza last summer that destroyed the entire neighborhood of Shujayea.

He reflects on some of the differences between reporting news locally and his work at @AJ+. In Doha the audience reflects the make-up of its residents; a diverse mix of many different nationalities,

and therefore it works better to keep reporting factually and journalistically.

With @AJ+ targeting a US millennial audience, he explains that their content has more opinion. They address particular issues and topics that are on the minds of their audience and are responsive to what they are talking about.

Since the network is already doing in-depth journalism in both English and Arabic, @AJ+ has the space to try and engage a younger audience.

I browsed through Chatriwala's photography on a few popular websites. He admits it’s been a while since he picked up his camera. His young family and work have been keeping him too busy.

I ask where he loves to photograph, and

after some thought he concludes that any place where the Mediterranean is a feature - with its blue sky and blue sea - would be his favorite.

It struck me, when I looked at his photographs, just how strongly people and children featured in his work, as opposed to pure landscapes for instance.The human element helps to create a connection, he explains. As opposed to a still life, that would be best studied in a more sterile environment. He talks about his visit to Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, where he found the kids easy to photograph and even calling out to him to be photographed.

I’m curious how someone who juggles so many responsibilities spends his free time - if he has any. Chatriwala enjoys reading graphic novels and even toys around

with the idea of writing one. Journalistic graphic novels appeal most strongly to him, and his favorites are by Joe Sacco, an award-winning visual journalist, and comic book artist.

When it comes to online journalism as a field, I was interested as to whether he thinks journalists sometimes give celebrities or public figures a hard time, perhaps a little unfairly. I refer to the media coverage of the trial and sentencing of South African Olympian, Oscar Pistorius. Not everyone thought the media were kind to him.

In the Pistorius case, he suggests, there was always a possibility the media would convict him before he stood trial. When it comes to this type of coverage, an online journalist obviously needs an audience. And of course, they know which details

will keep the audience interested and returning to a site for updates. It’s really for individual journalists to keep questioning if what they’re doing is cheapening them in any way.

Chatriwala is unmarked by the cynicism you might expect from a seasoned journalist. Instead, he seems to have the ability to see opportunity (and seize it) under every rock.

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