The challenges and opportunities posed by the Internet were major topics of discussion among speakers during the final session of the 4th Arab Free Press Forum, on what lies ahead for the independent press in the region.

Former Middle East editor for the Guardian, Brian Whitaker described the Internet as "probably the biggest challenge that newspapers are ever going to face," but emphasised how crucial it is to tackle this now, as "it's reasonable to say that a lot of print newspapers will have disappeared within 10-15 years if not sooner," at least in the Western world.

Khaled Sirgany, columnist at Egyptian newspaper Al Dustour explained how his paper is dealing with Internet publishing and addressing the competition. Al Dustour started to develop its website by putting up alerts for the breaking news that would be printed the following day, and now puts more on the website than in the newspaper, including videos.

Magda Abu-Fadil, a journalism professor at AUB, insisted on the need for more interactivity on newspaper websites in the Arab world. Many papers just put a pdf version of the paper on the site, she said, and don't take into account the shape of the screen and the constant need to scroll.

She and Whitaker both expressed a conviction that it is necessary for news organisations to involve communities more in their reporting. Abu-Fadil mentioned the Czech hyperlocal project Nase adresa as an initiative she would like to see imitated in the Arab world. Nase adresa produces hyperlocal news websites and its journalists work in 'newscafes' around the country where they are easily accessible to local residents. She thinks this kind of highly local news would be useful in the Arab world.

Whitaker gave examples of ways in which the Guardian's readers had contributed to the paper's stories: through crowd-sourcing MP expenses and bringing out details of the Trafigura case. "There are ways of collaborating with your readers to get information out into the public domain," he noted.

Managing director of Akhbar Al Youm Maghribya Taoufik Bouachrine added that "interaction between citizens and news outlets has a huge impact," and recounted how a young man with a phone camera followed and photographed multiple policemen as they accepted bribes from drivers stopped for traffic offences.