Two stories by KirkukNow website have won second and third prizes in the annual competition for the best reports covering human rights issues.
The results of the ninth season of the competition for the best journalistic reports related to human rights in 2024 were announced at a ceremony in Kalar district of Sulaimaniyah Northern Province on Thursday afternoon.
Ammar Aziz, KirkukNow reporter, won the second prize with an investigation entitled “Iraqi National Identity Card as Muslim or Christianity”, published last July.
The follow-up report is about a Christian woman who has been denied the right to obtain a national card and whose case has reached a legal deadlock, as she is faced with two options; choose between Christianity or obtaining an Iraqi national card.
The first prize went to journalist Zanyar Bahaaddin of Sibey website.
The Human Rights Journalism Competition has been running for nine years and this year 26 journalists, including four women journalists, entered the competition. Of the reports, 16 were published on social media and 10 on television has chosen.
The competition was organized by Radio Deng, an independent radio station in Kalar, with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a non-profit organization founded in 1983 that aims to promote democracy around the world.
Azad Osman, director of Radio Deng, who is supervising the competition, told KirkukNow that the main goal of the competition is to promote a professional report on one of the human rights violations.
Radio Deng has previously conducted a survey and the results have been in favor of the continuation of the competition, as it plays a role in creating positive competition among journalists to promote human rights and write professional reports.
The third prize went to journalist Farman Sadiq for his investigation into the arrest of a citizen named Idris Nanawa in Erbil without a judge's order criticism and protest at a rally against his poor conditions and people's livelihoods.
Professor Dr. Herish Rasul, a member of the evaluation committee of the Human Rights Journalism Competition, said there are two main criteria in the evaluations; “The general criteria are related to the extent to which the reports are related to human rights, violations and human rights protection.”
“The professional criteria are the extent to which the report has served human rights issues in terms of journalism and if it has offered solutions,” he added.
They jury also took into consideration the different dimensions and angles of a story, whether professionally and objectively covered the case, with an assessment of the drafting, editing, use of images, video and graphics.
“There may be other works that have not participated in the competition that are much better than these. Overall, the three reports were good, so they were selected and won points,” Rasul said.
Previously, the reports and investigations of KirkukNow reporters for 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 have won first to third prizes in the same competition for the best reports related to human rights.
In 2020, KirkukNow got the Most Progressive Media Outlet in a competition organized by Internews International for Iraqi media outlets that have been covering women's and gender issues in society.
KirkukNow Media Outlet has an electronic website that focuses on publishing events and issues that occur in the geographical boundaries of the "disputed territories", or related to the geographical boundaries, in order to promote peaceful coexistence in this border and easy access to information.
KirkukNow was established in 2011 and publishes news and stories in Arabic, Kurdish, Turkmen and English.
