The Heikal Foundation For Arab Journalism Announces The 2021 Excellence In Journalism Award Winners

The Heikal Foundation for Arab Journalism announced the winners of its fifth annual journalism awards today. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees presented the award to two outstanding young journalists this year for their journalistic achievements during a small-scale ceremony held on September 23^rd in honor of the late Mohamed Hassanein Heikal’s birthday.

The two 2021 awards went to Naziha Saeid, an independent Bahraini journalist who has excelled in covering all topics related to women’s right across the Gulf region. The second award went to Mohamed Abo El Gheit, an Egyptian journalist, for excellence in investigative journalism on Syrian Affairs.

To date, a total of eleven young journalists have won the prestigious award. This year’s event was hybrid with live streamed via Zoom in recognition of crowd limitation and social distancing guidelines and also to allow both award recipients to take part in the official award announcement.

In attendance at this year’s ceremony along with the Foundation’s esteemed Board of Trustees, was the Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Dr. Mostafa El Fekki among other distinguished guests.

“It is a tremendous honor to be standing among you today to present this award for the fifth consecutive year to yet another pair of exceptional young journalists and continue Ostaz Heikal’s vision of shaping the future of the press today through nurturing the hearts and minds of these brilliant young journalists, which has always been the foundation’s objective since its establishment in 2007,” said Mrs. Hedayat Heikal, Chairman of the Board of the Heikal Foundation. “Ostaz Heikal could not have been prouder to have his legacy once again celebrated in this manner. This award doesn’t only celebrate Ostaz Heikal but cements his legacy of empowering young ambitious journalists with versatile opportunities to expand their capabilities and remain ahead of global changes, with the aim of developing world-class talents and further advancing journalism within the Arab world.”

The Foundation announced that the inauguration of the relocation of Ostaz Heikal’s library is expected to take place within the next upcoming weeks. The trustees noted that the book collection from Heikal’s office, manuscripts, and rare documents, have been safely delivered to the library, in addition to original office furnishings, personal stationery and maps. A few handwritten notes are still being archived, along with maps, videos and all his photographs.

An additional collection of books from Heikal’s private library have also been archived by the Library of Alexandria but they will remain in the home of Mrs. Hedayat Heikal for the duration of her lifetime and will be sent to the Alexandria Library at a later time.

Applications for the competition were opened on 1^st February 2021 and ran until 31^st May 2021. Applicants are required to be Arab journalists under the age of 40, working at an Arabic language news outlet. The two awards, worth EGP 250,000 each, aim to enable young Arab journalists to further develop their skills, and drive excellence in the field of journalism.

Established in 2007 by renowned journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, the Heikal Foundation for Arab Journalism strives to nurture excellence and development in the field of journalism across the Arab world.