The jury of the 2023 Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards has announced the best journalism from conflict zones around the world, with top spots awarded to correspondents from Palestine, Russia, Syria, and Argentina.
This year marks the sixth time RT has held the awards, which were established in honor of RT Arabic freelance war correspondent Khaled Alkhateb, who died in 2017 while reporting from the frontlines in Syria.
The ‘Best Video Journalism From A Conflict Zone’ award this year went to Palestinian journalist Ghazi Al-Aloul, who submitted a series of reports from Gaza, where Israeli forces have been conducting a ruthless bombing campaign over the past two months. In his videos, Al-Aloul profiled the deaths of reporters covering the events, the work of hospitals amid the hostilities, and the lives of refugees.
The award for ‘Best Written Journalism From A Conflict Zone’ went to Sergey Prudnikov, a correspondent for Russia’s Izvestiya newspaper who made a series of reports on life in the frontline towns of the Donetsk People’s Republic in mid-2022. In his work, Prudnikov detailed the consequences of the savage shellings of Donetsk carried out by Ukrainian forces, the return of relative peace to the city of Volnovakha following gruesome battles, and the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol.
The ‘Best Humanitarian Video Journalism’ award was given to Argentine reporter Sebastiao Salgado for his documentary series, ‘Freedom Tango in Lugansk’, for which he personally traveled to the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics in 2022 to share the stories of local residents and describe how the frontline regions were recovering after the hostilities.
Finally, the award for ‘Best Humanitarian Written Journalism’ went to Al Mayadeen reporter Sara Salloum, who wrote a series of articles on post-war life in several regions across Syria, focusing on the humanitarian crisis caused by a lack of food and water, growing child labor exploitation, and the dangers posed by uncleared landmines.
The Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards were established by RT in 2018 in memory of 25-year-old RT Arabic stringer Khaled Alkhateb, who was killed during an ISIS shelling in the city of Homs, Syria while reporting.
During his time at RT, Khaled stated that he was proud to be able to tell the truth about Syria’s war on terrorism, which, at the time, he believed was misinterpreted by other mainstream media channels as a civil war.
RT’s Khaled Memorial Awards aim to embolden journalists to continue reporting the truth from conflict zones around the world. The ceremony is also meant to recognize the efforts and dedication of these reporters, who continue to carry out their journalistic duty despite working in difficult conditions at great personal risk.