Jury panel includes award-winning reporters from NPR, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and NYU Journalism School Each winner will receive a $500 cash prize DUBAI: The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association has launched a series of awards to highlight exceptional work by and about Arab, Middle Eastern and North African communities. “Promoting accurate and nuanced coverage of the Middle East and North Africa regions and people is at the core of our mission,” said Hoda Osman, AMEJA president. “We’re excited to launch the AMEJA awards so we can lift up exceptional news coverage by journalists working tirelessly to get the story right.” The awards program includes three awards: Best coverage of the MENA region; best coverage of MENA immigrant and heritage communities in North America; and the Walid El-Gabry Memorial Award, named after one of AMEJA’s founders to recognize the work of an AMEJA member. Each winner will receive a $500 cash prize. The first two awards are open to all journalists. Entries will be judged by a jury panel, including Mohamad Bazzi, NYU journalism professor and director of the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies; Nima Elbagir, CNN chief international investigative correspondent; Leila Fadel, host of NPR’s Morning Edition; Kareem Fahim, Middle East bureau chief for The Washington Post; Ayman Mohyeldin, MSNBC host of the show “Ayman”; and Jason Rezaian, columnist at The Washington Post and host of the 544 Days podcast. The Walid El-Gabry Memorial Award will be voted on by AMEJA’s members. AMEJA is accepting submissions until Aug. 28. To be eligible, the work must have been published, in English, between Jan. 1, 2021, and Aug. 1, 2022. Entries can be submitted in any format from print to podcasts. Winners will be announced in the fall of this year.