JT’s Khetam Malkawi wins regional FAO award

AMMAN — The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN announced on Tuesday the results of its first Media Award for the Near East and North Africa.

The winner from the print media category was The Jordan Times reporter Khetam Malkawi, with a story titled “Urban gardening project’s pilot phase in Mafraq, Irbid bears fruits”, published in the JT in September. 

Second place went to Yasser El Makhtoum with his report on “Planting algae in the Shishawa area in Morocco”, while third was Taha Hassib, for his piece on “Development of agriculture in Abu Dhabi on the road to sustainability”, according to a FAO statement.

Malkawi — whose experience in journalism covers sectors such as politics, health, foreign relations and tourism as well as the Syrian refugee crisis — started working at the JT in 2008.

In 2011, she won third place in the Jordanian-European Award for Excellence in Writing for a report on child labour.

Twenty journalists from different countries in the region participated in the FAO media award, submitting more than 50 print media, online, TV and radio reports, covering many “vital topics” on food and agriculture, the statement added.

“The entries for the first regional award were rich, diverse and professional. The results were very close among the finalists,” said Nabil Gangi, FAO deputy regional representative for the Near East and North Africa, who headed the jury of the award.

“FAO has decided to create an additional category for audiovisual participations, due to the abundance of participations and the high quality of reports and articles,” he added.

“The jury team in Cairo and Rome, in addition to independent jurors, evaluated each participation with an eye for innovation, accuracy, compatibility with FAO priorities, in addition to the extent of the demonstrated consultations with beneficiaries and stakeholders like farmers, government entities and other concerned parties,” the statement quoted Gangi as saying.

For the audiovisual category, Aysar El Barghouthy won for his documentary report on “Losses in Palestinian olive oil”.

Barghouthy also won second place for his report on “Honey production as a bread earning activity for Palestinian families”. 

In third place, Ahmed Mehran was recognised for his report on “Obstacles to wheat harvesting in Egypt”.

The jury “particularly recognised” participations that showed involvement of stakeholders on the topics covered; as one of the primary goals from the competition was to encourage investigative reporting in food and agriculture coverage, the statement said.

“The winners will receive their awards by FAO representatives in their respective countries, and... the conditions and timeline of the second round, coinciding with World Food Day 2018 will be announced soon,” Gangi said.

FAO launched the award to raise awareness on the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals as well as to encourage “creative communication” throughout the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016 to 2025), adopted by the UN General Assembly, according to the statement.