简体中文
Happiness overwhelmed Sani Meo, general manager of This Week in Palestine magazine, when he received the news that his modest monthly won Honorable Mention in the World Media Summit (WMS) Global Awards for Excellence 2014 in Beijing.
"It's an honor for us as a little magazine from Ramallah. I think it opens up new doors for us, but it also puts more responsibility on us," Meo told Xinhua at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
WMS Global Awards for Excellence 2014 announced winners and honorable mentions on Monday.
The awards' board of judges was chaired by Li Congjun, WMS executive chairman, judging committee chairman and president of the Xinhua News Agency.
The judges were drawn from WMS presidium member organizations, including The Associated Press, TASS, Kyodo News, Al Jazeera and Kasturi & Sons Limited. Veteran newsmen from international media organizations, including Agence France-Presse, Polish Press Agency, Hearst Corporation and Paris Match, were also on the panel, notably David Schlesinger, former editor-in-chief of Reuters News, and Jack Gao, former senior vice president of News Corporation.
Meo's magazine was one of over 450 news organizations and more than 500 news practitioners from 138 countries and regions that have submitted 1,424 entries in total.
The nominating panels have recommended 36 finalists to the board of judges, including This Week in Palestine magazine, which later won honorable mention of Award for Exemplary News Teams in Developing Countries.
Al Jazeera English was announced the award winner of this category.
Meo said: "This prize is amazing. It's good for me, good for the magazine and good for writers and audience."
"We have visitors from 127 countries and we will announce what we have got today so many people can see our success," he said cheerfully.
For Meo, the award is not only morally important, but is also important from a financial aspect since the magazine is non-profit and a cash prize would be of some help.
This Week in Palestine is a 100-page magazine that prints 10,000 copies every month. It is distributed free of charge and its cost is covered by the commercials and advertisements.
The magazine is meant to break any stigmas that people might have about Palestine, said Meo, adding "winning an honorable mention in such an important competition helps us achieve this goal."
Palestinian Deputy Information Minister Mahmoud Khalifa told Xinhua that the government highly appreciates such competitions organized by China as it reveals China's interest in spreading its rich media experiences to developing countries like Palestine.
"China is saving no efforts to help and assist media outlets and individuals in developing countries. Such competitions motivate journalists and give them an important chance to be more creative and this will definitely help them serve their national cause," Khalifa said.
Indian Sainath Palagummi from The Hindu won the award for news professionals in developing countries.
The media innovation award went to Behind the Bloodshed, a USA Today investigative report, which examined FBI data as well as local police records and media reports to understand mass killings in America.
The award for new media was given to Myanmar Emerges, by GlobalPost of the U.S. The multimedia report described Myanmar's emergence as one of the most important economic, political and cultural stories of 2013.
GlobalPost spent much of the year reporting from inside the country, from the shopping malls and recording studios of Yangon, to the copper mines of Kyisintaung Mountain.
The WMS Global Awards for Excellence are the first comprehensive news awards covering multiple media formats, including traditional press, photography, video and integrated media. The awards are intended to be authoritative, credible and globally influential. They are open to news agencies, newspapers, TV stations and news websites around the world.
