Samir Kassir Award 2025: Three journalists awarded for their articles on Gaza and Syria

BEIRUT — The Samir Kassir Foundation (SKeyes) organized the 20th edition of the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press ceremony on Tuesday at the Sursock Palace in Beirut, which annually honors the best articles published in the Arab press. This prize is awarded in memory of journalist Samir Kassir, a staunch opponent of the Syrian regime, who was assassinated 20 years ago (on June 2, 2005) in Beirut.

This ceremony was held, like last year's, in the absence of its founder, Gisele Khoury, Samir Kassir's wife, who passed away on Oct. 15, 2024, from cancer. Many tributes were paid in their memory, as well as to other murdered Lebanese journalists and intellectuals, such as Lokman Slim, researcher and opponent of Hezbollah, and Gebran Tueni, former director of the newspaper an-Nahar.

For the 2025 edition, the jury awarded three distinct prizes:

– The prize for the best "opinion article," awarded to Palestinian journalist Badar Salem for her article entitled "The Normalization of Resilience in Gaza," published on the Roumman platform.

– The prize for the best "investigative article," given to Egyptian journalist Marina Milad for her investigation into Syrian women imprisoned under Bashar al-Assad's regime, conducted after its downfall.

– The prize for the best "video report," awarded to Syrian journalist Khalil al-Ashawi for his report on childhood "in an endless war" in Syria.

The ceremony was held in the presence of the Minister of Information, Paul Morcos, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tarek Mitri, as well as the French ambassador to Lebanon, Magro, and Sandra De Waele, the European Union ambassador to Lebanon, an associate partner of SKeyes for this accolade.