Go for an afternoon coffee in Cairo with Yosri Fouda a time or two and you’ll begin to notice a pattern: wherever Fouda goes, he’s recognized and approached by al-Jazeera viewers wanting to know more about the latest hot topic on his investigative show Top Secret, people with suggestions for new reports, people who appreciate the work al-Jazeera and Fouda are doing.

Fouda, al-Jazeera’s award-winning investigative correspondent and London bureau chief, was presented with the Kamal Adham Award for Outstanding Professional Performance at this year’s Adham Center Annual Awards Dinner with ample reason: he’s packed more first-rate work with first-rate organizations into his eight years since graduation than seems possible.

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In 1996 Fouda moved to the London headquarters of Associated Press TV, co-founding the Middle East desk to provide Arab channels with tailored news reports. At the same time, he helped set up the London-based Arab News Network (ANN), and joined the newly established al-Jazeera channel as UK and western Europe correspondent. One year later, he had secured an independent production office in London for al-Jazeera, of which he now serves as bureau chief, and which sends out four live business bulletins, extensive political coverage of western Europe, a weekly chat show More than One Opinion, and Top Secret, the investigative series that Fouda himself researches, edits, and presents.

Top Secret has attracted much attention—and al-Jazeera’s first official recognition, an award from the 1998 Cairo Radio and TV Production Festival—for its in-depth coverage of sometimes quite sensitive topics. The recent Top Secret program on last October’s Egypt Air crash, for example, made page-one headlines across the Arab world. Fouda “set out to tackle the suicide theory” of the crash by boarding a Boeing 767 flight simulator, working with pilots to enter the exact technical data released by American investigators, and trying to force the plane down in the precise time and manner of the crash. After three tries “doing everything by the book” and still not getting the data to match, “we reached the conclusion that it wouldn’t have been humanly or technically possible for someone to bring the plane down in such a manner.”

Although regional media hasn’t always had high praise for al-Jazeera’s forward, independent style of news coverage, this story landed on the front page of Egypt’s al-Ahram and other official newspapers. It was big news, and also, especially for Egypt, a highly emotional issue. “I think Egyptians needed someone else saying what they wanted to say to the Americans,” Fouda says.

Al-Jazeera’s philosophy and willingness to deal with sensitive topics like this makes it an ideal fit for Fouda—considering his Adham Center training, his previous work with the BBC and AP, and his own inclinations to take on tough issues. “We strive for objectivity and balance, to the best of our knowledge and ability. You try to present whatever you can the way you feel, journalistically, is fair. You get misunderstood every now and then, but you still do your best. I think we’ve made an impact on other channels, because they know that if they don’t discuss things, al-Jazeera will.”

His Adham Center training prepared Fouda for many aspects of his career—except, of course, the use of a flak jacket, which Center Director Abdallah Schleifer, despite his own years of war coverage, hasn’t yet added to the curriculum. “I was lucky because the Adham Center allowed me to learn something about everything,” Fouda says. At that time Adham Center students chose a specialization in reporting, producing, or another aspect of the job, but Fouda “wanted to do everything…and Professor Schleifer allowed me to do that. I think it contributes to the making of a good journalist. I don’t think a cameraman can be a good cameraman if he doesn’t understand editing, or editor if he can’t appreciate the filming.”

Journalism, says Fouda, has gotten into his blood; “I don’t think I could lead a quiet life anymore.” He has other, related professional interests, such as teaching (having taught intensive editing classes at the Adham Center, training courses for Egyptian TV, and at Cairo University) and writing (he’s currently working on a book about his experiences in the field). But these are in what free time he has, or for the future—for the time being, his main focus is that there’s always another Top Secret to be uncovered.