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

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

As per the judges committee, headed by Ismail Khan, Editor Dawn (North), Mamaraha Afridi of the Tribal News Network (website) won the best tribal journalist award for 2020. Riffat Anjum, Aap News, was declared winner in 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, and 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.

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, Editor Dawn (North); Faizullah Jan, chairman of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department, University of Peshawar; Shabina Ayaz, Director, Aurat Foundation, Peshawar; and Abdullah Jan, former president of the Khyber Union of Journalists.

Senior journalist Rahimullah Yousafzai was the 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 Rs30,000 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 them.

The awards will be given away to the winners in the first week of November this year in Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2021