Yesterday evening, Sunday, an investigative report published by Al-Jazeera Net last April won the Silver Award as the second best Arab investigative report of the year.
This came at the conclusion of the 15th forum of the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism Network, known as ARIJ, in the Jordanian capital.
The golden award was won by the investigation of "Business in Yemeni Hospitals" by the journalist Wajdi Al-Salmi, and the second came the investigation of "The Belarusian Trap... Arab Migrants in the European Border Game," while the third prize (bronze) went to the investigation of "Prohibited Pesticides on the Tables of the Lebanese" by Zainab Mohsen.
The first investigation deals with doctors in some Yemeni hospitals amputating the limbs of wounded citizens without medical need, hoping for a grant from a Saudi charitable organization.
While the investigation of the "Belarusian trap", which the arbitration committee described as "humane par excellence", deals with the conditions of irregular Arab immigrants who fell victim to smuggling networks and pressures exerted by the Belarusian authorities in their attraction with the European Union countries.
As for the third investigation, it dealt with the use of banned or highly concentrated pesticides by some farmers to spray crops that are later traded in the Lebanese markets.
130 Arab investigative reports were nominated for the three awards, most of them from Iraq and Yemen, and 10 of them reached the short list, including 3 published on a coverage page on Al Jazeera Net that deals with investigative and news investigations and coverage.