Al-Araby al-Jadeed wins journalism award

Al-Araby al-Jadeed journalist Nasser al-Sahli received the fourth annual Martyr Ali Hassan al-Jabir award at a ceremony held in Doha on Sunday.

Al-Sahli received the award for his investigative article Migration to Italy: A trade killing migrants and enriching smugglers, which tells the story of Syrian and Palestinian migrants who escaped death in Syria, only for some to die at sea after being betrayed by smugglers.

The Martyr Ali Hassan al-Jabir award is given by the National Human Rights Committee of Qatar. There are three categories: press photo, investigative reporting and short documentary film.  

The award for short documentary film went to the Syrian al-Jazeera journalist and director Khaled al-Dughaim for Asir Kharij al-Qudbaan [Captive outside the prison cell], which portrays the suffering of Syrians who have migrated after the revolution.

The press photo award was handed to Yemeni photographer Omar Bouhafs for a photograph depicting child labour in Yemen.

The prize is a US$10,000 grant to the winner in the short documentary category and US$5,000 each for the winners in the investigative reporting and press photo categories.

 The head of the National Human Rights Committee of Qatar, Ali Bin Samikh al-Marri stressed the “important role played by journalists and human rights activists in revealing facts to global public opinion”.

Al-Marri also praised the people who work in the field of human rights, either directly or indirectly, including journalists who are banned from working or writing. He added: “we have to support everyone who works to expose [human rights] violations”.

The National Human Rights Committee of Qatar launched the award in 2011, in memory of al-Jazeera journalist Ali Hassan al-Jabir, who was killed in Libya on 12 March 2011 on assignment.  

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.