On Wednesday, the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon along with the Samir Kassir Foundation, announced the results of the 17th edition of the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press held at Saint George Hotel.
The Award, which was established by the European Union in 2006, is recognized in the region as one of the most prestigious for press freedom.
It was also established as a way to pay tribute to the Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir, who was assassination in 2005 for his journalism work criticizing the Syrian military occupation in Lebanon.
After witnessing the deteriorating media freedom across the region, the award committed to supporting and rewarding independent journalists, celebrating the quality of their work, and commitment to human rights.
The 2022 Samir Kassir Award year, recognized 261 journalists-participants in the competition from Lebanon, and also from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.
The journalists who competed in the Opinion Piece category, the Investigative Article category, and the Audiovisual News Report category were awarded a prize of €10,000, with each of the two runner-ups in each category receiving a €1,000 prize.
The winners of the 2022 Samir Kassir Award are:
- Opinion Piece category: Ezzat Alkamhawi (Egypt) for his article entitled “The suspicion architecture: The obsession of grand buildings and wide streets.”
- Investigative Article category: Safaa Khalaf (Iraq) for his investigation of “Iraq’s water crisis: Climate change leads to migration and civil strife.”
- Audio-visual News Report category: Iman Adel (Egypt) for her portrait of Rania Rashwan, published in Daraj Media.
The Samir Kassir Award ceremony also included the Students’ Prize, which allowed 21 students from Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen to get access to the finalists’ submissions.
Along with the winners, Lebanese Fatima Al-Othman (born in 1989) and Syrian Rukaia Al-Abadi (born in 1988) were voted for their investigation entitled “The Mahdi Scouts: A chronicle of child recruitment into Iranian militias” which was published in Daraj Media in May 2021.
Related: Who Was Samir Kassir, The Lebanese Journalist Assassinated For Criticizing The Syrian Regime.
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