Yahya Al Yacoubi, a graduate from the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Arts, won the 2020 Press House Award for Media Freedom in the category of feature story.
On Tuesday, November 3, 2020 and In the midst of precautionary and preventive measures taken against the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus, The Press House has honoured the winners of its annual Media Freedom Award for the year 2020, during the seventh anniversary ceremony held at the Light House restaurant in Gaza City.
It was announced that the IUG graduate Al- Yacoubi has ranked first in the category of feature story, which was judged by: Rasha Abu Hiseha, Ihab al-Jariri, and Ala Abu Aisha. Yahya Al-Yacoubi won the award on his story, entitled the departure of the “little Medic” Before Realizing the Dream of the Doctor, in which he narrated the story of the 12-year martyr child Nasser Masbah, who was stolen his life and dream during the Great Return of March.
The winning has come following the Press House Foundation’s announcement of its annual Media Freedom Award for 2020 in the mid of March this year.
The competition was held in media fields aimed at promoting concepts of freedom of expression, democracy, national unity, community reconciliation, tolerance, women and youth issues, academic and educational issues, and humanitarian issues.
The award’s categories rotated around the best-written feature story and the best journalistic photo. Concerning with the feature story, the terms of the competition were summarized in that each contestant has the right to participate by one material only. In addition, the work submitted must be innovative and authentic, and published within April 20, 2018 and May 16, 2020. Besides, the requirement for written works was to be published in a Palestinian or Arabic newspaper, local news agency or news sites. One more term was that the one who has benefited from the award in the past years are not eligible to participate in this competition again.
It’s worth noting that the graduate was nominated to the final list of the 2019 Samir Kassir International Award in Lebanon, in which 230 Arab journalists participated in. Yacoubi also won the “Wa’ed” Palestinian Prisoners’ Press Award 2019, and won the 2019 International Committee of the Red Cross Humanitarian Journalism Award. In addition, he ranked second in the Security Coalition’s 2019 Award for Best Investigations. Moreover, he was nominated for the 17th Dubai Arab Press Award.
