The annual Shifa Gardi Award ceremony is being held virtually and via TV broadcasting. The award highlights the talent of female journalists on the front line who bravely report and bear witness to realities that are often underreported.
Below is Rudaw Media Network’s statement announcing the prize winner for the fourth year in a row.
Unfortunately, last year was another bloody year for journalists around the world. According to the UNESCO observatory of killed journalists, 55 journalists have been killed during last year, many of them killed in countries that are not witnessing a war. That is a dangerous sign that journalists work in difficult environments to get to the facts and deliver their stories.
This year, because of the complexity of the situation in Afghanistan, and later the issue between Russia and Ukraine and the outbreak of war between the two countries, the winner of the Shifa Gardi Award and many of the journalists who should have participated in the ceremony, could not attend the award announcement ceremony, as they're busy with work and their coverage of events. There are also some requirements for protecting against Covid-19. Therefore, the committee of the Shifa Gardi Award has decided to do the ceremony online and via TV broadcasting.
The Shifa Gardi International Award is a tribute to Shifa Gardi's life and work. It's also a recognition of the work and effort of women journalists. Based on that, the award is given to a women journalist who's faced difficult conditions in getting to the facts and delivering the human stories to the world. The Shifa Gardi Award has been given to Jinan Mousa from Al-An TV in 2019, Arwa Damon from CNN in 2020, and Alex Crawford from Sky News in 2021.
This year, our committee has selected a journalist from the BBC who has been working for many years to reach the truth and deliver the news. She told the human stories of the people of Afghanistan throughout the war last year. She's currently covering the war between Russia and Ukraine. The committee has selected Lyse Doucet as the winner of the Fourth Shifa Gardi Award.
Shifa Gardi, an anchor at Rudaw Media Network, lost her life from and IED planted by ISIS fighters on February 25th, 2017. She was working on a report for her program, Focus Mousel, on the location of an atrocity committed by ISIS.
The Committee of Annual Shifa Gardi Award
February 25, 2022
