IraqiNews.com press contest launched in Arbil

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The independent news agency IraqiNews.com on Sunday announced the launch of a press contest in the name of martyrs of the press. IraqiNews.com’s Managing Editor Hussein Ajeel said that the agency will announce during the conference an annual press contest in the name of the agency’s three journalists who were killed in mid-2007. The agency lost three prominent journalists in two weeks in mid-2007 in acts of violence while doing their job: Sahar al-Haydari in Mosul, Nizar al-Radi in al-Amara, and Aref Ali in Baaquba. Meanwhile, more than 50 Iraqi and international figures will be attending on Sunday (May 3) the Arbil conference on the freedom of the press, organized by independent news agency IraqiNews.com under the aegis of the UNESCO, UNAMI and the UNDP. “Representatives from the UN as well as the minister of culture in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, legislators, judges, editors and journalists will attend the event,” Aswat Editor-in-Chief Zuhair al-Jazairy had said on Saturday. “The importance of this meeting is that it brings together different parties that had not exchanged views on the issue of the freedom of the mass media in the region before,” Jazairy added. He noted that the conference is coinciding with a historic event in the region, which is the forthcoming parliamentary elections. “In other words, there is a media parliament coming ahead of the political one”. “The media will play a key role in the preparations for and coverage of the elections and consequently it is very important for the three legislative, judicial and executive authorities and the Fourth Estate (the press) to reach common grounds to render the elections a success and make them more transparent, fair and credible,” the Aswat chief editor stressed. AmR (S)/SR 1