Composition of the jury of the Samir Kassir Award 2011
The jury was composed of seven voting members:
The Syrian Samir Aita is the editor-in-chief and general manager of "Le Monde diplomatique - Editions Arabes" which he had helped create in 2005 in partnership with the French edition. In 2000, he founded a consultancy company in economy and information technologies, which he still manages. He is the president of the Cercle des Economistes Arabes.
The Palestinian Rula Amin is a reporter for Al-Jazeera English television based in Beirut and currently covering the unrest in the Arab world. Prior to joining Al-Jazeera in 2006, she worked as a roving reporter in the Middle East for CNN, covering Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories. Rula Amin covered the second Intifada and the siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah as well as the death of Syrian President Hafez Al Assad, the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, the invasion of Iraq, the Hajj and the Saudi Arabian politics.
The Tunisian Neji Bghouri has been the President of the Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists since 2008. He is co-editor-in-chief of the Tunisian newspaper “Al-Sahifa”. He is also a founding member of the Commission for the freedom of information.
The Egyptian-American Mona Eltahawy is a columnist for Canada's Toronto Star and Denmark's Politiken. She is based in New York. Prior to her move to the United States in 2000, she was a reporter for Reuters and other media outlets in various locations in the Middle East. She was the recipient of the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press in 2009.
The Briton Dominic Evans is the bureau chief for Reuters in Lebanon, Syria and
Jordan. A veteran of 20 years in Reuters, he has covered extensively the Middle East, focusing on Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
He reported on the death of King Fahd and the wave of militant attacks in Saudi Arabia, as well as the U.S.-British bombing of Iraq in 1998 and the U.N. weapons inspections in the country.
Dominic Evans also worked in London as diplomatic and political correspondent.
The Lebanese Najib Khairallah is a founding member of the Samir Kassir Foundation. He is a financial and information technology consultant.
The Belgo-Lebanese Maroun Labaki is a journalist covering European Affairs at the Belgian newspaper Le Soir in Brussels where he has been working for 15 years.
Prior to that, he was a European Union correspondent in Brussels for several French newspapers.
