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Newsliner Hit me Baby, One More Time
By Shimaila Matri
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Oops,
we did it again! After bagging several APNS and PPF award earlier
this year, Newsline staff celebrate once more, as our colleague,
senior reporter, Massoud Ansari, wins the Natali Prize for "Journalism:
Excellence in reporting human rights, democracy and development",
for his article "The Great Repatriation Scam." Awarded
annually since 1992 to journalists from the written press who have
displayed "striking insight and particular dedication to the
reporting of human rights issues within the context of the development
process," this year's five winners from Africa, the Arab World,
Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America respectively, were chosen
from 320 submissions from 80 countries across the globe. At a special
prize giving ceremony held in Brussels, Massoud was honoured by
the International Federation of Journalists and the European Commission
and awarded 10,000 euros and a trophy. In the words of the jury,
"Massoud Ansari follows up on complaints of sexual harassment
and corruption in a repatriation scheme run by a UN agency, and
discovers, by dint of his own investigations, that the corruption
went to the core of the UN operation officially set up to encourage
Afghan citizens to return home from Pakistan. It is not an exaggeration
to say that the impact of this article proved devastating."
The UNHCR officially confirmed Massoud's findings, following an
internal investigation, which forced the resignation of the key
officials involved." And in the words of our ace reporter himself,
a former winner of the Fletcher Challenge Paper Commonwealth Media
Award 1999, an APNS award (1998), and granted an honourable mention
in the Kurt Schork Awards held by Columbia University earlier this
year, he simply feels "on top of the world." |
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E-mail: newsline@cyber.net.pk
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