Dubai: Eight distinguished journalists were Wednesday awarded the prestigious Arab Journalism Award 2011 in the 10th edition of the Arab Media Forum. The winners were selected from 3,800 submissions in eight categories from across the region. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, offered special recognition to the families of journalists killed in the line of duty.
Honouring dedication: They included Egyptian journalist Ahmad Mohammad Mahmoud of Al Ahram newspaper who died on February 3 after being shot during clashes in Cairo on January 29.
Qatari cameraman Ali Hassan Al Jaber, head of the photography department at Al Jazeera, who died on March 2 in an ambush in the Hawari region near Benghazi and Iraqi journalist Sabah Al Bazi, a reporter for Al Arabiya TV in Baghdad, who died on March 29 in the Salahuddin province of Iraq. Shaikh Mohammad presented the 2010 Media Personality of the Year, a special recognition award, to Nasser Mohammad Al Othman, Dean of Qatari Press and Secretary-General of the Gulf Press Association for his outstanding efforts to develop the media landscape in the Gulf region and in Qatar. The General Secretariat of the award decided this year to present four prizes in the Young Journalist segment in response to the high number of entries received and as an incentive to encourage fresh talent in the field of journalism.