JOURNALISTS FROM US, RUSSIA, AND YEMEN TAKE TOP HONORS AT RT’S INTERNATIONAL AWARDS FOR WAR JOURNALISTS
MOSCOW, DECEMBER 27, 2021 – The jury of the Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards 2021, an annual competition that recognizes top-class journalism from conflict zones, has announced its winners. They are war correspondents and journalists from Russia, the US, and Yemen. The awards were established in honor of RT Arabic freelancer Khaled Alkhateb, who died on July 30, 2017 while reporting from the front lines in Syria.
The Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards are granted in the following categories: Best Written Journalism from a Conflict Zone; Best Video Journalism from a Conflict Zone; Best Humanitarian Journalism: After the War – a new category introduced in 2021. It honors both video and written reportage on post-conflict recovery, ranging from individual human stories to the efforts of broader communities.
THE WINNERS:
1. Best Video Journalism from a Conflict Zone
– Alexander Lukyanov (Russia), ‘Rumbling Silence’, Russia 24.
The reporter goes to the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) front lines to see with his own eyes how the ceasefire is being implemented, and nearly comes under fire himself. On the Donbass line of contact, DPR representatives increasingly report that Ukrainian forces have been violating the July 2020 ceasefire agreement. Prisoner-of-war exchanges have been suspended, and DPR negotiations are proving fruitless. Special correspondent Alexander Lukyanov reports.
2. Best Written Journalism from a Conflict Zone
– Anuj Chopra (United States), ‘Battles and Bloodshed in Yemen’s Marib’, AFP.
An on-the-ground report from Marib, Yemen, as Houthi rebels ramp up a scorched-earth offensive to seize the city, triggering a humanitarian crisis and prompting local tribe members to join the fight to save the strategic, oil-rich city.
3. Best Humanitarian Journalism: After the War
– Rania Abdallah (Yemen), ‘Life, Terminated’, YEMEN-TV.
The documentary covers the ongoing armed conflict in southwestern Yemen, which drove 38 families to flee to a remote mountainous area in the al-Mafir district of Taiz Governorate, where they were left with no means of survival. As the Covid-19 pandemic spread, the refugees’ plight worsened. Poor sanitary conditions have led to complications during childbirth and frequent miscarriages.
– Neha Wadekar (United States), ‘The Hidden Story Behind the Fight for Cabo Delgado’, The Telegraph.
Since 2017, the conflict in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique has displaced over 800,000 and killed thousands more. Villages have been ravaged by ISIS-affiliated militants who have propelled the insurgency to the global stage. This conflict has mostly been characterized as the spread of terrorism in Africa, but its root causes are far more complex. The report examined the fight over natural gas, precious stones, and illicit trading, and investigated how government marginalization created ripe conditions for an insurgency.
The winners will each receive a monetary prize of 200,000 rubles, or its foreign currency equivalent, which, at the date of announcement, is approximately $2,700, or €2,400.
This year, the judging panel includes Evgeny Poddubny, a war correspondent whose work in Syria and Ukraine brought him three TEFI awards; Alexander Kots, a journalist and a war correspondent, recipient of several state awards and decorations for war journalism; and Maria Finoshina, an RT war correspondent who covered recent major conflicts and protests around the world. They were joined by Eva Golinger, journalist, writer, and expert on US and Latin America foreign policy; Ahmed Gomaa, expert on Arab affairs, correspondent for Egypt’s Youm7 newspaper; and Konstantinos Antonopoulos, Greek journalist and winner of various international awards.
The first recipients of the Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards in the inaugural year of the competition in 2018 were from Iraq, Ireland, and Singapore. In 2019, journalists from Russia, the United States, Italy, and India took top honors for their reports about conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Libya. In 2020, awards were claimed by reporters from Russia, Syria, and India.
The Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards were established by RT in memory of 25-year-old RT Arabic freelancer Khaled Alkhateb, who was killed by ISIS shelling in Homs, Syria, in 2017. Khaled had been covering the fighting between Syrian government forces and terrorists. In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin honored Khaled Alkhateb posthumously with the Medal for Courage.
