17 March 2016
Kabul- Marofa Zaki a reporter from the ArianaNew TV channel has become the first female journalist to win the “Afghanistan Journalist of the year” award in a tough competition against tens of other journalists from around the country.
Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AFJC) launched the “Afghanistan Journalists of the Year” award in 2014 to appreciate the professionalism of Afghan journalists and to encourage them to adhere to internationally applied journalism standards in their coverage of events inside Afghanistan.
Ms. Zaki was deemed by the judges’ committee to have been outstanding in the year under review. She picked up the prize at the awards ceremony celebrating Journalist’s Day on Thursday March 17. Officials from the ministry of information and culture, media support groups and journalists from across the industry attended and journalists from across the industry attended the event at Government Media and Information Center(GIMIC) in Kabul.
The journalists and media organization across Afghanistan were invited to nominate one story per person in the competition. The competition attracted dozens of entries from all around the country. The jury was impressed with the depth of experience contained in the state-winning entries.
Among over 60 applicants participated in this competition, a total of 11 competitors from television, radio, print and online media have been recognized as outstanding journalists for their hard work in producing compelling stories in 2016 and Ms. Zaki received the highest score by the jury for her report on “Kabul Ambulance Service”.
The story reveals the difficulties of Kabul ambulance which operates the city of 4.5 million’s fleet of 20 official vehicles in the war-torn Afghan capital. In the Afghan capital, a city where residents have started to carry notes of their blood type in case they become the next victim of the Taliban or Daesh attacks, even ambulances are no longer safe and the divers have to adopt themselves to the hardship in the endless war.
Afghanistan Journalist of the Year award competition is open to all Afghan journalists who work inside Afghanistan with any national or international media organizations. The calls for entry will be made in February every year at the Afghanistan Journalist Center website.