Winners of Humanitarian Awards for journalists announced

AMMAN — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in cooperation with the Jordan Press Association (JPA) and the Jordan Red Crescent held a ceremony on Monday to announce the winners of the first Humanitarian Awards. 

The Humanitarian Awards were launched in April this year for entries on stories and photos published between June 2020 and September 7, 2021 in two categories: The best story on a humanitarian subject and the best photograph on a humanitarian subject, according to a host at the event. 

However, the jury panel concluded that there were no winners in the photo category as the entries submitted did not meet the prescribed standards.

In the best story category, the first prize was jointly won by two journalists: Tala Ayoub and Ikhlas Al Qadi. Two journalists also shared the second prize: Ola Abdel-Latif and Razan Al Majali.

“The motivation for IRC’s creation of the competition is born out of its conviction that the media in every country should play an essential role in raising attention to the plight of those affected by humanitarian crises,” Sarah Avrillaud, head of the ICRC delegation in Jordan, said during her speech. 

“We are pleased to cooperate with the ICRC and the JRCS as we all strive to maximise the values of humanity, motivate journalists to report more on humanitarian issues and reward creative writing that shows the power of words and images,” Khaled Qudah, representative of the JPA, said during his speech. 

Announcing the winners, Hussein Nashwan, a member of the jury panel said: “The jury read the materials presented under the humanitarian story genre, considering the novelty and originality of the topic, the richness of the material and its professionalism.”

“The committee also set evaluation criteria related to language, syntax, good selection of topics, and method of handling and presenting a humanitarian story in writing,” he added.

The ceremony was well attended by the diplomatic community, media personalities, including The Jordan Times, as well as humanitarian and development organisations.