Rana Sabbagh

Rana Sabbagh is senior editor for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). She is co-founder of the Amman-based Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and its inception executive director (2006-2019). She joined OCCRP in 2020, working with Arab investigative journalists to produce high-quality, ambitious cross-border investigations in the largely autocratic and male-dominated region. Rana has dedicated her decades-long career as a journalist, columnist, and media trainer across the MENA region to promote free speech, human rights, gender equality, independent media, and the hitherto unknown culture of “accountability journalism.”
As the former editor-in-chief of The Jordan Times, Rana became the first Arab woman in the history of the Levant to run a daily political newspaper. She served in that role from 1999 to 2002, when the then-government premier ordered her sacking because of the paper’s pro-reform edi...