Karachi: The Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), conferred awards upon eight journalists for their outstanding contributions to the field of humanitarian reporting at the ‘Humanitarian Reporting Awards 2023’, at the IBA City Campus.
These awards, were organized to highlight and promote ethical, accurate and responsible reporting on humanitarian issues including, but not limited to, violence against healthcare workers, disaster reporting, issues related to persons with disabilities, disaster response/preparedness, population movement (refugees/IDPs), climate change impact, etc.
This year, the awards were conferred in four categories. In Mainstream Broadcast (Urdu & Regional languages) category, Sidra Dar, Reporter, Voice of America emerged as the winner, with Saher Baloch, Correspondent, BBC Urdu as the Runner-up. In Mainstream Print (Urdu & Regional languages), Iqra Ashiq, Assistant Multimedia Producer, Dawn won, and Saadia Ubaid Khan, Sub-editor, Jang Group was the Runner-up. Hira Saeed Farooqui, Product Development Associate/Freelance, GEO News claimed the top position in the Mainstream Print (English) category, while Ayaz Khan, Editorial Assistant, Dawn Newspaper secured the Runner-up position. Shabina Faraz and Somaiyah Hafeez, both Freelancer Journalists, won and were Runner-up, respectively, in the Online (English, Urdu & Regional languages) category for news stories produced between October 17, 2022, and September 25, 2023.
Winners and runners-up were selected by a panel of senior journalists from a total of 309 entries from across the country. Jury members included Ghazi Salahuddin, Senior Journalist and Staff Member, The News International; Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, Journalist and Analyst, Co-founder and Director News, The Khorasan Diary; Afia Salam, Freelance Journalist; and Shahzeb Ahmed Hashim, Journalist and Editor, Dawn.com/Prism.
This year, the CEJ-IBA and ICRC also honored the work of three citizen journalists in the category of Citizen Storyteller, who highlighted the plight of the underserved through video stories. The winner in the category was Naeem Ahmed and Runner-ups were Afreen Zehra and Uzair Surhio. Their entries were selected from a total of 60 submissions received from across the country, by renowned journalists Haroon Rashid and Sana Gulzar.
Nicolas Lambert, Head, ICRC’s delegation in Pakistan emphasized the importance of access to timely and accurate information in a humanitarian crisis as it can help save lives. Lambert stated, “We are proud of our partnership with CEJ for The Humanitarian Reporting Initiative which has enabled the training of journalists from across Pakistan on the importance of ethical, factual, and empathetic reporting on issues of humanitarian concerns.”
Savio Pereira, CEO, Dar-ul-Sakoon, emphasized the need to accept, respect, and include persons with disabilities in society.
In his keynote speech renowned journalist Zarrar Khurro shared the purpose of Journalism i.e., to raise the voice for those who are affected by humanitarian issues.
In his welcome note, Taimoor Ahmed, Assistant Program Manager, CEJ-IBA, expressed immense pleasure on the collaboration between the ICRC and the CEJ for its annual humanitarian reporting awards for the seventh year in a row, contributing towards improved standards in humanitarian reporting. “Global events over the last few years have underscored the need for balanced and sensitive reporting on escalating conflicts, refugee crises, pandemics and extreme climate events. While hundreds of journalists submitted their work for four categories, I am delighted that for the first time this year, most of our winners are female journalists,” he said.
