Doha: The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) yesterday honoured three winners of the Fifth Edition of the martyr Ali Hassan Al Jabir awards.
The contestants competed for the award in three categories for a collective cash prize of US $20,000. The winners were announced in the three categories, namely, of press photography, investigative reporting, and short documentary film-making.
According to a press statement issued by the media office of the NHRC, Ahmed Samer Al Baz, a Palestinian from Ramallah, won the prize for press photography, while Mohammed Mustafa Al Sawaf, also from Palestine (from Gaza) was selected for the award in the documentary film category for his short documentary film.
For the category of investigative reporting, Mohammed Abu Qamra, also from Gaza in Palestine, was named the winner for his investigative work.
The NHRC was keen to make sure that the honouring ceremony of the award winners coincided with the ‘Arab Human Rights Day’ marked on March 16 every year, said Dr. Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri, its Chairman, in a speech at the ceremony.
The theme of this year’s Arab Human Right Day is “ Human Dignity For All” since dignity is the umbrella for the protection of human rights and respecting humans regardless of race, faith, culture and language, Al Marri emphasized.
The committee received many nominations for the awards from among the contesters and after a thorough review and assessment selected the winners, who are being honored today, said Al Marri.
“I would like to advantage of this occasion to remind you about the challenges facing the media in general and the media in the Arab region, in particular. When national human rights committees defend journalists, they are actually defending the frontline for defending human rights, because journalists are the watchdogs and they disclose the wrongdoings anywhere in the world,” said Dr Mustafa Sawak, Director-General of Al Jazeera Network.
“We are doing our best to enhance media freedom, and protect journalists, and currently we are finalizing Doha Declaration on protection of journalists which will become the international document for protection of media personalities. The declaration will be made during a conference that will kick off here on March 19, and will host over 500 journalists and media corporations from across the world,” said Al Sawak.
Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee launched in march 2011 this annual award in memory of Al Jabir, an Al Jazeera cameraman who was martyred in Libya, and instituted the award in the name of the martyr Ali Hassan Al Jabir, honoring him and to shed light on the role of media personalities and importance of their protection.
The total amount of the award is $20,000. Each winner from the two categories, those of press photography and investigative reporting, are honored and given 5,000 each with a shield.
The winner in the short documentary film category is awarded $10,000.
The winning work will be printed and placed on CDs in order to be presented and distributed in the ceremony. Al Jazeera’s press statement did mention the issues addressed by the winning works.
The Peninsula
