Composition of the jury of the Samir Kassir Award 2010
The jury was made up of six voting members:
Nahida Nakad (France 24-Monte Carlo Doualiya)
Lebanese-Italian Nahida Nakad is deputy director of the Arabic service at French television station France 24 and deputy director of news and programmes at the Arabic-language radio station Monte Carlo Doualiya. She is also head of the Arabic service at the Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France, the French state TV and radio world service.
Nahid Nakad started her career in London in 1982 as a reporter for the pan-Arab magazine Al Hawadeth. In 1985, she moved to Rome where she worked as a freelance journalist for several Arabic magazines and Italian dailies. In 1987, she became a correspondent in Rome for the French television channel TF1. She moved to Paris in 1991 to work at TF1’s world service for which she covered major conflicts in the Middle East, the Balkans and Africa.
Nahida Nakad holds a B.A. in Journalism and Political Sciences from St. Mary’s College, California, USA. She is the author of two books in French about Lebanon and Iraq.
Birgit Kaspar (Deutschlandradio, Deutsche Welle, DSR Swiss Radio)
German Birgit Kaspar is a Beirut-based correspondent for Deutschlandradio, Deutsche Welle, DSR Swiss Radio and various German newspapers and magazines. She has covered major events and conflicts in the Middle East since 1998, including the 2003 war in Iraq when she was based in Baghdad.
Birgit Kaspar holds an M.A. in German literature and history from the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and a Diplôme supérieur d’études françaises from Toulouse University in France.
Amine Kammourieh (An Nahar)
Lebanese Amine Kammourieh is a journalist and a columnist in the Lebanese daily newspaper An Nahar where he has been working for the last 24 years. He was head of the Arab and international desk at An Nahar between 1996 and 2004. He is one of the founders of An Nahar’s youth supplement, Nahar Ash Shabab, where he was editor-in-chief between 1994 and 2001. He has also covered major events across the Middle East, from Algeria to Iraq, as a field reporter for An Nahar.
Amine Kammourieh is currently the editor-in-chief of the Al Rai Al Akhar magazine, specialised in Middle East political strategies. He frequently appears on Lebanese and foreign televisions as a political commentator specialised in Middle Eastern affairs. He was the editor-in-chief of the Dubai-based Al Bayan daily newspaper in 2004-2005.
Amine Kammourieh holds a D.E.A., an M.A. and a B.A. in social and political sciences from the Lebanese University.
Jamal Khashoggi (Al Watan)
Saudi Jamal Khashoggi is the former editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan. He served as advisor for the Saudi ambassadors in Washington D.C. between 2005 and 2007, and in London between 2003 and 2005.
Since he started his career in 1985, he has collaborated with leading newspapers in the Arab world, including Al Hayat, Ash Sharq Al Awsat, Arab News, Al Madina, Al Majallah, Al Muslimoon, Saudi Gazette and Okaz. He has covered major events in the Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait and Sudan.
He is a regular political commentator for the Saudi television, MBC channel, the BBC, Al Jazeera, Abu Dhabi TV and Dubai TV. He also writes weekly editorials for the Saudi newspaper Al Madina, Lebanon’s The Daily Star, Kuwait’s Al Rai and Qatar’s Asharq.
Jamal Khashoggi holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Indiana State University, USA.
Ahmed Reda Benchemsi (TelQuel, Nichane)
Moroccan Ahmed Reda Benchemsi is the publisher and editor in chief of French-language TelQuel and Arabic-language Nichane magazines in Morroco. He was the correspondent for the group Jeune Afrique in Morocco (1999-2001), editor in chief of the weekly magazine Téléplus (Casablanca, 1999), communication adviser to the State Secretary for Environment (Rabat, 1998), and a reporter for various Moroccan publications including La Vie Economique, Enjeux, Le Journal, and Femmes du Maroc.
Ahmed Reda Benchemsi holds an M.A. in Economics from the Sorbonne University and a D.E.A. in Political Sciences from Sciences-Po University in Paris.
He is the recipient of two European Union journalism awards: the Samir Kassir Award for freedom of the press (2007) and Lorenzo Natali Prize’s 1st prize for the Arabic world and the Middle East (2005). He was also awarded the investigative reporting prize of the Moroccan press syndicate (1997).
Maha Yahya (Samir Kassir Foundation)
Lebanese-Belgian Maha Yahya is the regional advisor on urban and social policy in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Previously, she was project director of the National Human Development Report, Toward a Citizen’s State at the UN Development Program (UNDP), and an independent consultant for various UN agencies and the World Bank.
She also taught at the American University of Beirut, and is the founder/editor of the MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies (MIT-EJMES) in the United States.
Maha Yahya holds two PHDs in Social Sciences and Humanities from the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Architectural Association of the School of Architecture (AA) in London. She also graduated with an M.A. in Urban and Housing Studies from the AA and a B.A. of Fine Arts in Environmental and Interior Design from the Parsons School of Design in Paris.
