19 March 2018
Kabul- Zamzamah Niazi a journalist from the BBC Afghanistan has become the second 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. Niazi 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 National Journalist’s Day on Monday March 19. Officials from the ministry of information and culture, media support groups and journalists from across the industry attended the event at Kabul Serena Hotel.
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 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 2018 and Ms Zamzama Niazi received the highest score by the jury for her report on “Afghan women forced into marriage by a bullet”.
The story reveals an upsetting cultural practice in parts of Afghanistan where girls lose their legal right to marriage once a man comes to their house and starts firing guns and announcing that the girl became his.
“To think now that I have been finally recognized by the judges and I look at the list and see the extraordinary competition I was up against; it really does mean so much. Thank you so much I won’t forget this extraordinary and joyful moment,” said Ms Zamzama Niazi while receiving her award plate.
The event was supported by Roshan, one of the private Telecom Development Company operating in Afghanistan.
By the initiative of AFJC, March 18 was named as the National Journalist’s Day and was celebrated in Kabul and other cities of Afghanistan to acknowledge the significant role of journalists in strengthening of the free press and flow of fair, impartial and balanced information to the people that stands as an important pillar in a democratic society.
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.