(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JUNE 5 - He has ended up in the prisons
of the Arab countries twice now: in Kuwait and last year in
Syria, but this has not stopped his journalistic work. Jordan's
Suleiman Khalidi is one of the two winners of this year's Samir
Kassir Prize for Press Freedom, which has been set up with
assistance from the European Union.
A reporter for Reuters, Mr Khalidi has wrote an article
telling of his ordeals in the prisons of the Damascus regime,
winning the prize for best opinion article, while his young
Egyptian colleague Pakinam Amer won the prize for investigative
journalism with a meticulous reconstruction of the Reda Hilal
case, appearing in Cairo's Al Masri al Yawm. The story is of the
Egyptian journalist who disappeared in circumstances that remain
mysterious while Hosni Mubarak was still in power.
The award ceremony for the Samir Kassir Prize took place on
Saturday in Beirut, on the anniversary of the bomb attack that
killed the leading intellectual and journalist in 2005, who lead
the campaign for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon
after 29 years of military 'protection'. The ceremony was
attended by European Ambassador Angelina Eichorst.
Khalidi's article bears the title ''Humanity in tatters in
the Syrian state security service''. He was arrested last year
during the early stages of the uprising in the country by the
security forces in the southern area of Daraa while gathering
eye-witness reports on regime violence.
''I was only in prison for a few days, then the Amman
government intervened,'' Khalidi told ANSA. He had previously
been in a Kuwaiti prison during the Gulf War. The two winners
receive a 10,000 euro prize.
The international Samir Kassir Prize, which is financed by
the EU and which has been made possible by the work of the Samir
Kassir Foundation, is awarded each year and is open to all Arab
printed word journalists.
In his story, Khalidi, father of two children, went beyond
descriptions of the violence perpetrated by regime security
personnel on arrested demonstrators to open a chink of light on
the ''humanity in tatters'' visible in some of the country's
prisons.(ANSAmed).
