JEDDAH, 2 May 2007 — The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry will announce the winner of the Jeddah Economic Forum Prize for Journalistic Distinction next week.
JCCI will announce the winner of the SR100,000 prize for the best coverage of the city’s annual event that brings together players in the economic growth of the country.
The judging committee received only 39 entries including Arabic and English articles and TV reports. Radio correspondents did not take part in the competition.
“During April, the committee met weekly to study the materials that were submitted for the competition,” said JCCI spokeswoman Sara Baghdadi, adding that the JCCI played no role in the judging process.
Baghdadi said that each member of the committee evaluated each submission individually and anonymously.
“The style of writing is not among the criteria since it is not a composition; it is a piece of journalism. What is important is the quality of information that is provided in the articles,” she said.
The head of the committee is Abdulwahab Al-Fayez, editor in chief of Al-Eqtisadiah. The vice president of the committee is Mohamed Sadiq Diab, editor in chief of Al-Haj magazine and a columnist in Asharq Al-Awsat. Other members are: Yasin Al-Jifri, professor of economics at King Abdulaziz University (KAU); Khaled Darraj, managing editor of Al-Riyadh newspaper; Manal Al-Sharif, manager of the women’s department at Al-Madinah newspaper; Mustafa Sabri, general secretary of JCCI, and Al-Baghdadi.
Al-Sharif said that unfortunately many journalists did not understand the criteria of the competition and, as a result, the works came out similar and lacked a sense of creativity.
“The articles needed to be bolder, objective, informative and credible, written or done skillfully, and sticking to the aims of the forum,” she said.
She said that most of the articles reiterated what the speakers said without including the opinion of the reporter.
“We were shocked to find senior reporters indulging in something that far from what can be called journalism. We were also shocked that none of the photojournalists participated. There is a lack of awareness in the media regarding the competition in spite of how big the prize is,” she said.
For the English articles, only Yasin Al-Jifri and Mohamed Sadiq Diab took charge of evaluating them.
“The English entries were merely four or five. That is not a big deal. They can be read in minutes. Arabic entries form the majority,” said Al-Sharif. “We don’t look at who wrote the article. We read the article and read the name of the reporter afterwards. Only the person who deserves it will take it.”
