PESHAWAR: Judges for the Amir Ahmad Siddiqui (AAS) media awards have invited entries for this year’s competition from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s journalists by March 20.

A news release issued here on Wednesday said the intending applicants should send their entries to aasaward2019@gmail.com or outgoing president of Khyber Union of Journalists Saiful Islam.

It added that the journalistic work appeared in local, national or international media organisations during the one-year period ending on Dec 31, 2018, would be eligible for the competition, which is being held for the fourth consecutive year in memory of Amir Ahmad Siddiqui (late), a journalist from Peshawar.

The release said a five-member committee of judges headed by senior journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai had decided to invite entries for the categories, including best investigative Urdu news story, best investigative English news story, best Urdu feature/column, best news picture, best radio package (Urdu or Pashto), and best television news package/report, which included separate awards for the reporter and the video cameraman. The winners will get Rs25,000 each and trophies.

According to the judges, this year’s AAS awards will include one special one for a veteran journalist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for his/her journalistic work. The name of the veteran journalist will be finalised by the judges committee, which includes among other members editor of daily Dawn (North) Ismail Khan, chairman of the Mass Communication Department, University of Peshawar, Faizullah Jan, head of Aurat Foundation, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shabina Ayaz and former president of the Khyber Union of Journalists Abdullah Jan.

The applicants have been asked to submit only one of their journalistic works appeared in 2018.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Peshawar Press Club in April, where a renowned journalist would be invited as the chief guest.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2019