17March 2017
Kabul: Mukhtar Wafayee a journalist from 8sobh daily received the 2017 “Afghanistan Journalist of the year” award for an investigative report on illegal use of government vehicles by former officials.
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.
Mr. Wafayee was deemed by the judges’ committee to have been outstanding in the year under review. He picked up the prize at the awards ceremony celebrating National Journalist’s Day on Monday March 17. Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, Deputy minister of the ministry of the information and culture Sayed Agha Husain Sancharaki, representatives from international community and media support groups and journalists from across the industry attended the event at Government Media and Information Center(GIMIC) in Kabul.
The journalists and media organization from across Afghanistan were invited to nominate one story per person in the competition. The competition attracted dozens of entries from all around the country.
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 2017 and Mukhtar Wafayee received the highest score by the jury for his report corruption of some high profile officials that led to illegal use of government vehicles for personal purpose.
The story reveals that “a large number of government armored vehicles and vehicles are being used for personal purposes by former officials and the government has no attention to collect them” Mr. Wafayee said
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 2017 event was sponsored by the Ghazanfar Bank.
The calls for entry will be made in February every year at the Afghanistan Journalist Centre website.