Tangier: Winners of the Al-Quds Al-Sharif Awards for Excellence in Developmental Media Journalism Announced

SadaNews - The winners of the third edition of the Al-Quds Al-Sharif Awards for Excellence in Developmental Media Journalism were honored yesterday evening in Tangier (northern Morocco), aimed annually at students from schools, institutes, and colleges of journalism in Morocco and Palestine, in the presence of Moroccan personalities, the Palestinian ambassador, and the director of the Al-Quds Al-Sharif Cash Cow.

The works of the winners in this edition, named after the late journalist and founder of the Moroccan News Agency (the official Moroccan news agency), Mahdi Benouna, were categorized into three categories: the TV survey category, the radio report category, and the written journalistic report category.

Three Palestinian female students won awards in all three categories, according to the announcement by the jury, while one Moroccan student won in the radio report category, and the jury decided to withhold awards in the other two categories due to the non-conformity of the competition conditions with Moroccan nominations.

The four awards announced were distributed as follows: student Malak Abu Riah from Al-Quds University won the award in the written journalistic report category for her report on a topic titled "The Moroccan Gate: A Moroccan Memory Guarding Jerusalem and Its Al-Aqsa". In the radio report category, student Ikram Radha from Morocco excelled with a report titled "The Suffering of Women from the Water Crisis in Gaza", and student Shahd Al-Razi from Palestine for her report titled "Education in Jerusalem: A Moroccan Mark Connecting the Two Peoples".

In the TV survey category, the award was won by Palestinian student Rana Hadiyah for her English work titled: "Occupied Workers".

On the same occasion, the "Freedom of Press and Media in Palestine" scholarship, established by the agency in 2022, was given to the Modern Media Institute affiliated with Al-Quds University to finance graduation projects for master's students.

In a speech during the occasion, Dr. Mohammed Salem Al-Sharqawi, the director in charge of managing the Al-Quds Al-Sharif Cash Cow Agency, called on journalism and media students in the Arab world and globally to draw inspiration from the resilience elements in the Palestinian model and to listen to its people and reflect on their successful experiences that give them energy and the ability to coexist with their bitter reality despite hardships and difficulties.

Al-Sharqawi emphasized that the Al-Quds Al-Sharif Cash Cow Agency, which operates under the direct supervision of Moroccan King Mohammed VI, aspires to fulfill its obligations in implementing concrete programs and projects that benefit Al-Quds Al-Sharif and its steadfast inhabitants of all categories, references, and interests.

For his part, the Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Morocco, Jamal Al-Shoubaki, confirmed that the organization of the award ceremony coincides with the celebration of the International Day for Developmental Media, praising the choice of the name Mahdi Benouna for this year's edition, who reached Palestine in 1928 and began his education at the Al-Najah School in Palestine, being one of the first Moroccan students in Palestine.

He noted that celebrating developmental media cannot be separated from the severe political and humanitarian reality faced by the Palestinian people, explaining that what this people endures is a test of the value of the word and the power of the media.

In another context, he praised the steadfast positions of the Kingdom of Morocco under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, the chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, towards Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause.