Nadia Al-Saqqaf, Editor-in-chief of the biweekly Yemen Times, was awarded the 2006 Gebran Tueni Award on December 10th. Created by the World Association of Newspapers following the assassination in 2005 of the Lebanese journalist Gebran Tueni from Annahar newspaper, this new prize is intended to honor every year an editor or publisher from the Arab region.

Ms. Al-Saqqaf, who is the first woman ever to be appointed editor in Yemen, received the award in Beirut during the opening ceremony of the "Media In Danger - Press Under Siege" conference.

According to the World Association of Newspapers, the award was presented to Ms. Al-Saqqaf for demonstrating the values incarnated in Gebran Tueni: attachment to freedom of the press, courage, leadership, ambition, and high managerial and professional standards.

The Gebran Tueni Award carries a Euro 10 000 scholarship which will let Ms. Al-Saqqaf undertake advanced newspaper leadership training through the training institute of An-Nahar, the Tueni family owned newspaper in Lebanon.

Roger Parkinson, outgoing president of WAN (World Association of Newspapers) who presented the award, said: "Despite the difficult media environment, Ms. al-Saqqaf intends to make a difference by bringing to the readers of the Yemen Times accurate and meaningful information they can trust. In this regard, her ambitions to raise journalistic skills within the newsroom, to improve the position of female journalists and to support independent news media in Yemen are most commendable." Ms. Al-Saqqaf is a graduate of Sterling University in the United Kingdom and holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management. She worked for Oxfam in Yemen before taking over, after her brother, the Yemen Times, a newspaper founded by her father Abdulaziz al-Saqqaf and considered as one of the most outspoken English newspapers in the country.

The Paris-based WAN, the world organization for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom worldwide. It represents 18 000 newspapers; its membership includes 76 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 10 regional and worldwide press groups.

Gebran Tueni had been participating at the WAN activities for almost 20 years as a leading member of its Press Freedom Committee, a Board member for more than a decade, a regular participant in missions to press freedom in the countries where it is most threatened, and a constant advisor and support to the leadership of the organization on Arab and press freedom issues. WAN and the Tueni family created this award to encourage other courageous and independent publishers, editors and newspapers in the Arab world.

For more information about the World Association of Newspapers, visit the following site : www.wan-press.org