Sheikh Mohammed honours Mohammed Jassim Al Saqr with the Media Personality of the Year award. Kamal Kassim / Gulf Today

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

DUBAI: The Arab Media Forum (AMF 2019) concluded in Dubai on Thursday with a glittering award ceremony honouring winners of the 18th Arab Journalism Award.

Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum honoured Mohammed Jassim Al Saqr, founder and publisher of Kuwaiti daily newspaper ‘Al Jarida’ with the Media Personality of the Year award.

Sheikh Mohammed also honoured Eminent Arab journalist and chairman of the Egyptian newspaper ‘Al Masry Al Youm’ Dr Abdel Monem Said with the Best Columnist Award.

Deputy Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikh Mansour Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future Mohammed Al Gergawi, Secretary General of the Arab Journalism Award and Chairperson of the Organising Committee of the AMF 2019 Mona Ghanem Al Marri, and Chairman of the Board of the Arab Journalism Award Diaa Rashwan were present on  the occasion.

A poem penned by Sheikh Mohammed about the impact of war and terrorism in the region as well as in other parts of the world was another highlight of the ceremony. The poem was rendered by popular Arab singer Latifa.

The award ceremony, attended by a large number of prominent media figures and Arab journalists, started with a short video about recent key events that were covered by Arab media.

First award was presented to ‘Al Khaleej’ newspaper, a sister publication of ‘Gulf Today,’ for exceptional political journalism.

‘Al Bayan’ won the Smart Journalism Award, while Abdulhay Mohammed of ‘Al Bayan’ newspaper won the Economic Journalism Award.

Award for Best Investigative Report was presented to Assad Alzilzali of Iraqi newspaper ‘Alalam Aljadid.’ Cultural Journalism Award was presented to Sayed Mahmoud of Al Ahram Al Arabi magazine, Egypt. Eman Hana of ‘Youm7’ newspaper of Egypt bagged the Humanitarian Journalism Award.

Press Interview Award was presented to Radwan Mabshour of ‘Al Ayam’ newspaper of Morocco. Sports Journalism Award was given to Emran Mohammed of ‘Al Ittihad’ newspaper.

Photojournalism Award was given to Ibrahim Abu Mustapha of Reuters.

Award for Outstanding Cartoonist was presented to Yassir Al Ahmed of ‘Makkah’ newspaper from Saudi Arabia.

Young Journalist Award was presented to three young journalist – Mohammed Mahdi of ‘Masrawi’ website, Ahmed Alameed from ‘Al Watan’ newspaper of Egypt, and Mohammed Salman from ‘Youm7’ newspaper of Egypt

Earlier, speaking at a session entitled ‘The Age of Fabrications’, fact-checking reporter Daniel Funke said that the Fact-checking journalists throughout the world have become a primary defence against fakery and are playing a significant role in debunking fake news on large social media platforms.

Funke, who works for the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter Institute for Media Studies, spoke about the proliferation of misinformation in our world today and what can be done to combat it.

“We can all be fact-checkers,” Funke told the audience, which included journalists from different media organisations. “Journalism is the primary way we can fight bad information online.”

“Fake news is not a great term to describe this phenomenon. It really doesn’t mean anything anymore, because it has become greatly politicised,» Funke added.

Defining the three types of ‘information disorder’, Funke said, “The first type is misinformation, and this is the type of information that is false, but not created with the intention of causing harm. It’s not always clear why it has been shared. On the other side, there is disinformation, which does imply intent. It is demonstrably false content that is trying to achieve a goal. It could be to sway elections or to get someone to share something, or even make money on a website. The third type, is mal-information, which includes hate speech and targeted harassment. It might include elements of false information and misinformation, but is not necessarily false.”

Funke explained that within misinformation, there are also different types, such as satire and parody, which sometimes people do not understand and can mistake for real news.