Deadline for participation in Arab Journalism Award extended

The new deadline of January 15th, 2008 will give more time for applications, with the aim of attracting a larger number of Arab journalists, both females and males, to participate in the event.

Maryam Bin Fahad, Executive Manager, Dubai Press Club, revealed the decision to extend the deadline followed recent visits by the Awards' senior staff delegation to a number of Arab countries where there is growing interest on behalf of Arab journalists to participate in the Award, seen as representing one of the major Arab events where creative journalists get honored.

"Our decision to extend the deadline was driven by our interest in widening the scope of participation," said Bin Fahad. "To that end, we decided to undertake practical procedures to overcome all drawbacks, in coordination with journalism syndicates and institutions in the countries visited."

The Award delegation tour covered Qatar, Oman, Morocco and Tunisia and emphasized the Awards' importance as a platform to encourage journalists and nourish their creative abilities which will, in turn, have an impact on the performance of Arab journalism. Moreover, the Awards will enhance the practice's competitiveness in the global arena and help develop the means to encourage journalists for more participation and competition in all categories, without any additional financial liabilities to deliver journalistic work to the Award headquarters in Dubai.

"In the countries we visited, we have seen great interest from journalists to participate in the Award. Many journalists commended the Award's good reputation as a key regional congregation to honor outstanding journalistic figures. They stressed that winning the Award has become a dream for many journalists, due to the Award's great literary and moral values that definitely overstep its materialistic ones," added Bin Fahad.

"Over the past six years, the Award played a key role in enhancing creative work on the Arab journalism scene, which empowered its regional status and made it a goal any Arab journalist would aspire to. This is in addition to the non-stop endeavors of the Award, with all its categories, to enhance professionalism and establish the basic values of journalistic work including impartiality, neutrality, and commitment to accurate and objective citation of facts. All such factors made the Award a source of pride for all of us," said Bin Fahad.

The Awards comes with cash prizes totaling $235,000 (Dhs863,000), and includes 12 categories - Politics, Business, Investigative Journalism, IT, Columnist, Culture, Sports, Environment, Photo-Journalism, Caricature, Interview and Children's Journalism. A special award will be presented to 'Media Personality of the Year'.