“Military commanders around the world have not stopped working even during the coronavirus epidemic. Just last week, the stringer of our video agency RUPTLY was brutally killed in Yemen. The prize of Khaled al-Khatyb, who died in the war, we hand out to journalists who risk themselves for the sake of truth, ”said Anna Belkina, deputy chief editor of RT.
The Khaled Al-Khatib International Prize is awarded in three categories: “Best Work from the Conflict Zone: Long Video”, “Best Work from the Conflict Zone: Short Video”, “Best Work from the Conflict Zone: Text”.
In 2019, works from 25 countries claimed victory. The laureates were representatives of Russia, the USA, Italy and India, who spoke about the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Libya. The jury included prominent foreign and Russian journalists, including Irada Zeynalova and Evgeny Poddubny.
The awarding ceremony took place as part of the RT Media TALK conference “In the conflict zone: risks and responsibilities of journalists”. The meeting was attended by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Russian President’s special envoy for digital and technological development Dmitry Peskov, RT and MIA Russia Today editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, as well as Russian and foreign journalists. The participants in the discussion discussed the problems of objectivity in reporting on conflicts, verification of information from hot spots and other issues.
The winners of the third annual KhaledAlkhatebInternational MemorialAwards 2020 award will be announced July 30, the anniversary of the death of 25-year-old journalist Khaled al-Khatib, who collaborated with RTArabic. Khaled al-Khatib died as a result of rocket fire from militants in the Syrian province of Homs in 2017. In his reports, he covered the battles of Syrian government forces with terrorists. In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the posthumous rewarding of Khaled al-Khatib with the For Courage medal, which was presented to his family at the first award ceremony.
In June 2020, in Yemen, unidentified persons shot journalist Nabil Hassan al-Qaichi, who collaborated with the video agency RT RUPTLY and other media. He highlighted the military-political conflict in the country and the situation in the Middle East. In January of this year, RUPTLY stringer Safaa Gali was killed in Iraq.
You can submit an application on the website - https://award.rt.com.
* “Islamic State” (IG) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.