Gaza -Press House
With consideration of high preventive measures to prevent the outbreak of Coronavirus, on Tuesday,3 November,2020, Press House – Palestine (BAS) honored the Winners of its Annual Award for Media Freedom 2020, during the seventh anniversary ceremony held at Light House restaurant in Gaza City.
Mr. Belal Jadallah, director of Press House - Palestine, Dr. Kamal Al-Sharafi, media professionals, writers, intellectuals and a number of new journalists and media activists, attended the ceremony which was limited to a very specific number.
In his speech, Mr. Jadallah welcomed the attendance, noting that the ceremony comes seven years after the establishment of the Press House -Palestine organization, which was established to promote freedom of opinion and expression in the Palestinian territories, under preventive measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Mr. Jadallah thanked the Swiss and Norwegian governments, including funding for Press House Award, which is part of the capacity building program.
"There has been a gradual interest in the submission of Press House Award, which gives a satisfactory indication of the success of its goal, which is to activate the role of media professionals in focusing on topics such as promoting freedom of expression, democracy, community reconciliation, national unity, tolerance, humanitarian issues, women's and youth issues, and academic issues, and these are what characterizes Press House Award every year." Mr. Jadallah said.
Mr. Jadallah called for strengthening media unity, and rejecting the dispute as well as strengthening joint media efforts to defend the media freedom so that we can confront violations of media freedom."
At the end of his speech, Mr. Jadallah congratulated all the winners of the annual award for this year, expressing his hope for success to those who were not lucky, and to receive the award at the next year, and thanked the media arbitration committees, which worked with professionalism and transparency to select the winners according to the criteria set for the award.
During the ceremony, a short film documenting the chronology of the years of launching Press House Award for Media Freedom, and the contributions of those who participated in its various fields, and the winners of it over the past years.
From his part, the honor guest of the ceremony, Dr. Kamal Al-Shrafi, thanked Press House and its curators for their efforts in promoting media freedom among journalists.
"Today's journalists represent unknown soldiers who speak the word of truth and document history," Dr. Al-Shrafi said.
Mr. Al-Sharafi continued: "We are proud of the press we have reached despite some violations of the press body," calling on the press generation to unite in supporting the Palestinian cause to achieve the goals that our people need”
Mr. Al-Sharafi stressed that journalists face other challenges that have emerged, such as the Coronavirus, which the ministries of interior and health cannot face without the support of the press body, which has an important role to play.
Press House also honored the family of "Martyr of The Estrangement" Mohammed Daoud, noting that he was an example of a persistent journalist and a model for a dedicated journalist in his work.
In her speech, a writer Ms. Rasha Abu Jalalah, a representative of evaluation committees, reviewed the nature of the work of the committees formed by Press House to evaluate the advanced materials for the award for the categories "Photo Journalism, Story journalism".
"The committees evaluated the advanced materials based on the terms and standards of Press House Award and according to the stated topics: freedom of expression, democracy, humanitarian issues, national unity, tolerance, academic aspect, women's and youth issues, where one winner received first place in the category of photo journalism, and one winner received first place in the category of story journalism," Ms. Abu Jalalah said.
Ms. Abu Jalalah followed: "The evaluation process was conducted with integrity, transparency and high objectivity, as an evaluation model was adopted for each category of the award according to the members of the committee and Press House."
Ms. Abu Jalalah noted that during the work, the members of the committees did not know the names of the applicants, the materials were referred to as numbers(Code) and not by the names of their owners.
Ms. Abu Jalalah ended her speech, thanking all those who contributed to the success of this ceremony and the presentation of this award, and all those who came forward and contributed to the creativity of his idea, his pen to reach this platform with his efforts and creativity.
Press House awarded his appreciation prize to the writer and the novelist Mr. Gharib Askalani.
"I was surprised by this award, which shows that the writer cannot be separated from his life and reality, because all a writer expresses is a reproduction of the hope and pain that he lives," Mr. Gharib Askalani said, thanking Press House for this appreciation of the writers.
At the end of the ceremony, the winners of Annual Award for Media Freedom 2020 announced for each category:
Category of journalism photos were evaluated by AFP photographer Mr. Mohammed Albaba, photographer of Reuters International news agency Mr. Mohamed Jadallah, AP photographer Mr. Hatem Moussa, and Mr. Noaman Eshtiwi, director of APA Images, the winner was Mahmoud Ajour.
Category of journalistic stories were evaluated by Ms. Ala Abu Aisha, a writer at Ultra Palestine website, Ms. Rasha Abu Jalal, a writer at the American website "Al-Monitor", and Mr. Ihab Al-Jariri, Managing Editor of Radio 24 FM from the West Bank, the winner wasYhia Al-yaqubi
