World Association of News Publishers


WAN-IFRA Announces 2019 Laureates of the Women in News Editorial Leadership Award.

WAN-IFRA Announces 2019 Laureates of the Women in News Editorial Leadership Award.

Paris – 2019-05-07

The WAN-IFRA's Women in News Editorial Leadership Award recognises an exemplary contribution of an Editor to her newsroom - and under her leadership the contribution of her newspaper - to society. Two Editors from Lebanon and South Sudan receive the 2019 Award recognizing exceptional leadership in the newsroom. The 2019 Laureates will be honoured at the 71st WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress and World Editors’ Forum taking place in Glasgow, UK from 1-3 June.

Anna Nimiriano, Editor-in-Chief of the Juba Monitor in South Sudan, has been named the 2019 Africa Laureate. Acil Tabbara, Senior Editor at L’Orient du Jour in Lebanon has been named the 2019 MENA Laureate.

“I’m humbled and grateful for this award. Who would have known that a South Sudanese female journalist, the only female Editor-in-Chief in the country, operating in a difficult conflict zone would be recognised for her work,” said 2019 Africa Laureate Anna Nimiriano."To other female journalists in Africa and around the world, this award is for you.”

On being named a winner, 2019 MENA Laureate Acil Tabbara said: “I dedicate this award to the brave and inspiring journalists who taught me so much, of whom many are women, exceptional women. I would like to tell the young and aspiring journalists: don’t think our profession is in decline, you are more needed than ever today in the Middle East.”

The Women in News Editorial Leadership Award is part of WAN-IFRA’s Women in News initiative, made possible through support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Award recognises one Laureate from MENA and one Laureate from Africa, annually.

Previous Laureates include: Toyosi Ogunseye, Head of language services at BBC World Service, Karima Kamal, columnist and contributing editor for the Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm, Pamella Sittoni, Managing Editor for The New Daily Nation, Noura al-Hourani, Lead Arabic Editor at Syria Direct, and Barbara Kaija, Group Editor-in-Chief of the Vision Group.

The 2019 Laureates will be honoured at the 71st WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress and World Editors’ Forum taking place in Glasgow, UK from 1-3 June.  For more on the conference: https://events.wan-ifra.org/events/world-news-media-congress-2019/programme

To read more about the 2019 Laureates: http://womeninnews.org/laureates

Online registration for the World News Media Congress is available at www.events.wan-ifra.org

From left to right: Acil Tabbara (Senior Editor at L’Orient-Le Jour,  Lebanon), Anna Nimiriano, Editor-in-Chief at the Juba Monitor, South Sudan)

CONTACT - INQUIRIES

Melanie Walker , Director, Media Development - Programme Head, Women in News, WAN-IFRA melanie.walker@wan-ifra.org

 

ABOUT WAN-IFRA AND WOMEN IN NEWS. WAN-IFRA is the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Its mission is to protect the rights of journalists across the world to operate free media, and provide its members with professional services to help their business prosper in a digital world and perform their crucial role in open societies. With formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe, it derives its authority from its global network of leading news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs, and its legitimacy from its 80 national association members representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries. More on www.wan-ifra.org

Women in News (WIN), WAN-IFRA’s Gender and Media Freedom Strategy, aims to increase women’s leadership and voices in the news. It does so by equipping women journalists and editors with the skills, strategies, and support networks to take on greater leadership positions within their media. In parallel, WIN partners with media organisations to identify industry-led solutions to close the gender gap in their newsrooms, boardrooms and in the content they produce. WIN is currently working with more than 80 media from 15 countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia including: Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (WIN Africa) and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine (WIN MENA), and Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam (WIN SEA).  WIN is made possible through support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More on www.womeninnews.org

ABOUT WAN-IFRA PRESS FREEDOM AND MEDIA DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES - Increasing media freedom directly strengthens democracy and human rights is a foundation of societal development - be it economic, cultural or political. This has been a guiding principle of WAN-IFRA for seven decades of global advocacy and development work. WAN-IFRA responds to requests for support from its membership base and also implements long-term advocacy and development initiatives.  Advocacy actions are coordinated through WAN-IFRA’s growing network of Media Freedom Committees and include campaigns, coordinated press freedom missions, awareness raising, and public events to strengthen safety and protection, legal and regulatory frameworks, reduce censorship and confront other challenges to the editorial and economic independence of media. 

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