Egyptian and Lebanese journalists win Samir Kassir press freedom awards

The two winners of the European Union's Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press were announced this week, including a previous winner of the awards from its very first year.

Lebanese journalist Habib Battah was named the winner of the Investigative Report category for his article Return to the Valley of Jews. The article was published on Al Jazeera's English language website in December last year.

Battah was awarded the second prize in the 2006 edition of the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press, in a single Journalists category.

Egyptian journalist Ethar El-Katatney was named the winner in the Opinion Article category for her article The Veiled Muslim Bogeygirl.

According to an announcement on the award website El-Katatney's article was published in the Egyptian online newspaper Bikra Masr in January. Both winners received a €10,000 prize.

The awards honour the memory of Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir who was killed in Beirut in 2005.

The competition is open to journalists in 18 countries in North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf and this year received a new record of 220 applications, a reported 50 per cent increase on last year.

"The Arab Spring would not have been the same without social networks, journalists, bloggers, and online media," ambassador of the European Union to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst says in a release.

"Each one has played a major role in these popular uprisings; they have brought the events powerfully to life, allowing us to feel as if we were amongst them. Each one is a mouthpiece of the people and of their aspirations for freedom, democracy, and social justice – all of which the European Union holds to be universal and non-negotiable rights.

"This is why they have the duty to honour their audience with accurate and trustworthy information."

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