Khaleej Times new sponsor of the Ibda'a Media Student Awards

This is the first time that Khaleej Times is joining the Ibda'a bandwagon as an official sponsor.

"Khaleej Times has always believed in the prime importance of talent to the media industry," said Mr. Mohammed A. R. Galadari, Chairman of the Galadari Group of Companies and Publisher of Khaleej Times. "It is our creative journalistic talent that sustains our business success and we are keen to contribute to initiatives that help promote talent. We are extremely happy to support Ibda'a's mission of fostering and recognizing media talent around the world," he added.

"We are happy to welcome Khaleej Times on board as a sponsor of the new international Ibda'a Media Student Awards," said Abdulhamid Juma, CEO of Dubai Media City and Coordinator General of the Ibda'a Media Student Awards. "Khaleej Times has been a leading player in Dubai's media community and one of the pioneers in the English media here. We look forward to working with them closely to expand the Ibda'a brand," he added.

The official sponsors for Ibda'a 2004 also include ARN, BBC World, Motivate Publishing, Network Productions, Seven Star, Showtime, and Virgin. Dubai Media City will also continue its strong association with the International Advertising Association (IAA) in organizing the Awards.

This year, the Ibda'a Media Student Awards has been expanded in scope to include entries from all over the world. Ibda'a's expansion into a worldwide competition realizes its eventual goal of having global reach and appeal.

So far, Ibda'a has focused only on a region extending from the Middle East to India and Central Asia to South Africa. However, even in the previous editions, it has attracted significant interest from countries as far afield as US, UK and Australia. The new international Ibda'a Awards is Dubai Media City's response to this global interest.

Ibda'a has launched a massive international campaign, which will see it conduct roadshows in 23 countries - United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, UAE and the GCC countries, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

The Award categories have been expanded to include two new categories for photography. The expanded list of 10 Award categories includes Journalism, Radio, Digital Photography, Analogue Photography, Film/TV feature, TV Documentary, Graphic Design, TV Advertising, Print Advertising and Animation.