5th Amir Ahmad Siddiqui Media Awards winners announced

PESHAWAR: The judges’ committee of the 5th Amir Ahmad Siddiqui Media Awards announced the names of the competition’s winners here on Sunday.

According to a press release, over 125 journalists from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa belonging to national and international print and electronic news organizations took part in the competition, involving a total of six categories.

As per the judges’ committee, headed by senior journalist Ismail Khan, Mamaraha Afridi of the Tribal News Network (website) won the best tribal journalist award for 2020.Riffat Anjum, Aap News, was declared the winner of the best female journalist category.

Izharullah of Independent Urdu (website) won the best Urdu story/ feature award.

Islam Gul of the Peshawar Today Website won the best picture award.

Sajmal Yooddon of Aap News was declared the best TV reporter for 2020. Similarly, Arshad Yousafzai of The News International has won the best English story category award for 2020. The competition involved journalistic works of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa journalists from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.

The process of reviewing entries to the competition got delayed due mainly to the COVID-19 related public health measures and repeated lockdowns in different parts of the province. The competition, named after a veteran journalist of Peshawar, Amir Ahmad Siddiqui (late), is being held as a joint endeavour on the part of his family and a group of senior journalists from Peshawar.

The judges’ committee includes Ismail Khan, Dawn Resident Editor; Faizullah Jan, Chairman, Journalism and Mass Communication Department, University of Peshawar; Shabina Ayaz, Resident Director, Aurat Foundation, Peshawar; Abdullah Jan, a former president of the Khyber Union of Journalists. Senior journalist Rahimullah Yousafzai was a patron and headed the judges’ committee since the competition was launched six years ago. However, this time round after his sad demise, the competition was supervised by senior journalist Ismail Khan.

The successful journalists will get a cash prize of Rs 30,000 each along with a winning trophy. It was for the first time that a special award for female journalists was included in the competition to encourage female journalists.The awards will be given away to the winners in the first week of November this year in Peshawar.