Doha Debates wins new award

Manama: The Doha Debates, Qatar's forum for free speech, have won three "Insight Awards" by the California-based National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists.

The citations are given to creative work that has been judged excellent and made a special contribution to the movie or TV industries.

Judges singled out The Doha Debates' special event with senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar, the programme that discussed the motion "This house believes Muslims are failing to combat extremism" and the performance of the moderator Tim Sebastian.

"We are delighted to be honoured in this way. It's a huge tribute to the professionalism and commitment of the entire team," Sebastian said. "This is the second set of international awards we have won in the past three months and that kind of visibility is doubly important for us at a time of political turmoil in the Middle East," he said, quoted by Qatari daily The Peninsula.

Winners of the 2010 Insight Awards were selected from over 2,300 entries, submitted by a range of studios, TV and web-based companies.

Last November the Debates triumphed in the Special Genre category at the Association of International Broadcasting Awards in London.

The programmes are available in more than 400 million homes on six different international and national broadcasters in the US, Canada, Pakistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

These include: BBC World News; MHz Networks and their affiliate PBS channels; The Real News Network; New York's Channel 13; Geo TV; and Bosnia and Herzegovina TV.