Finalists announced for Publishing Lifetime Achievement Awards

Organisers have announced finalists in the three categories and the winners will be revealed at tonight's conference dinner when they will receive their honours.

The categories are: MEPC Lifetime Achievement Award for Newspaper Publisher, MEPC Lifetime Achievement Award for Magazine Publisher and MEPC Lifetime Award for Online Publisher.

Finalists were chosen by the awards selection committee, comprising representatives of the three co-organisers - the International Federation of Periodical Publishers (FIPP), the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and Dubai Consultancy Research & Media Centre.

They are:

• Newspapers: Ghassan Tueni, journalist, publisher and civil servant, who took over An Nahar (Lebanon) in 1947 and helped establish it as an outspoken, independent, liberal newspaper; Hisham and Muhammad Ali Hafiz, considered founders of journalism in Saudi Arabia, having in 1978 founded Asharq Al Awsat; the late Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf (1952-99) the founder, editor and publisher of the Yemen Times who was also a human-rights activist; the late Abdul Aziz Fahd Al Msa'eed who was a towering figure in Kuwait's post-independence press; and Mustafa Ameen (1914-97), journalist, writer and publisher who established Al Akhbar.

• Magazines: Ghanima Fahd Al Marzouq, publisher of Usrati weekly, Kuwait, and one of the pioneer publishers in Kuwait and the Gulf region; Ian Fairservice and Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, founders of Motivate Publishing that in 1979 produced the region's first English language magazine; Walid Akkawi, managing director of the ITP group, that reflects just about every aspect of the rapidly changing IT and business industry in its 25 market titles; and Sheikh Abdullah Dabbagh, a former Saudi Arabia Minister for Agriculture, who founded DIT Publishing, one of the region's leading Arabic and English Language technology and lifestyle publishing houses.

• Online: Aljazeera.net, the first mainstream Arabic news site that has become one of the 50 most visited sites worldwide; www.aitnews.com, one of the top online sources for news about information technology in Arabic; www.ameinfo.com, a leading provider of business information in and about the Middle East; www.maktoob.com, billed as the 'World's Largest Arab Online Community' with 4,394,541 registered users as of March, 2006; and www.jmcc.org/index, the Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre that provides a wide range of services to journalists, researchers, international agencies, individuals and organizations interested in obtaining reliable information on the Palestinian territory.

Middle East Publishing Conference organisers now plan to extend the awards to cover current achievement in the industry.

From next year, nominations will be invited to honour individuals making a distinguished contribution to the advancement of media and publishing.

"Final categories are yet to be decided, but in principle we see these awards as being the annual Oscars of regional publishing," said Ahmed Al Mansoori, president of Dubai Consultancy Research & Media Centre.

"This year's lifetime achievement awards will therefore evolve from a gesture of appreciation to a testimony of what members of the industry are currently achieving -recognition of their commitments to the values that make this industry what it is."