Al Othman is media personality of year

Dubai: Winners of the tenth edition of the Arab Journalism Award were honoured yesterday at a ceremony attended by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The winners were selected from 3,835 applicants.

Shaikh Mohammad presented the award for 2010 Media Personality of the Year to Nasser Mohammad Al Othman, Dean of the Qatari Press and Secretary General of the Gulf Press Association.

Shaikh Mohammad also honoured the journalists who died in the line of duty in 2011. The families of Al Ahram reporter Mohammad Ahmad Mahmoud, Al Jazeera cameraman Ali Hassan Al Jaber and Al Arabiya reporter Sabah Al Bazi received the honours.

Mahmoud from Al Ahram newspaper died on February 3 when a sniper bullet hit him on January 29. Qatari cameraman Al Jaber, head of the photography department at Al Jazeera, died on March 2 in an ambush in the Hawari region near Benghazi, and Iraqi journalist Al Bazi, reporter at Al Arabiya TV in Baghdad, died on March 29 in Salahuddin province, Iraq.

Shaikh Mohammad was yesterday honoured by the Arab Journalism Award in appreciation and gratitude for his role in supporting the Arab media for the past 10 years and his patronage of the Arab Journalism Awards and the Arab Media Forum.

The board of directors of the Arab Journalism Award and the Dubai Press Club also presented a memento to Shaikh Mohammad.

Qatar's radio pioneer

Born in Qatar in 1940, Nasser Mohammad Al Othman was recognised for his efforts in developing the Arab and Gulf media, particularly the Qatari media landscape. He is also credited with setting up the first radio station in Qatar. In 1970, he supervised the first international book exhibition in Doha and conceptualised the idea of setting up a Gulf Press Association in collaboration with his colleagues.

He was rewarded the Taryam Omran award in 2007 and the Media Creativity Award in Jordan in 2007.