An Investigative story by “SIRAJ” on the Shortlist of the “Cancer World Journalism Award”
SIRAJ:
An Investigative story By SIRAJ (SYRIAN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING FOR ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNALISM) has reached the Shortlistfor the “Cancer World Journalism Award”, to be held this year in Vienna, Austria, at the 7th European Cancer Conference September 2018.
The award is organized by the European School of Oncology (ESO) and highlights periodic articles and investigative stories that “changed people’s thinking about the disease.”
The story “Looming death in Ghouta”, which highlighted the suffering of children suffering from cancer, including children during the siege of the eastern Ghouta at the beginning of this year, and investigations by colleagues Ahmad Haj Hamdo and Ali AlIbrahim, was shortlistedalongside 17 articlesfrom journalists around the world, They wrotestories about cancer.
According to the organizers, this year’s session was “the most competitive in comparison with previous courses”, with high praise for the high level and professionalism of the participating works.
The Award received 181 applications from 39 countries around the world. Just 17 journalist from all four categories reached to the shortlist.
The awards are divided into four categories: Patient and Caregiver Experience, Research, Science and Therapy, Policy, Services, Affordability, and Prevention.
According to the investigation, which was published on DARAJ.com, the cancer patients in Al-Ghouta were at risk of dying because of the depletion of cancer treatment and the inability to take them to hospitals in the Syrian capital, Damascus. With the weak capacity of the United Nations organizations to lobby for medicines to pass to patients and kids.
The Syrian Investigative Journalism Unit (SIRAJ) was founded in early November 2016 by a group of Syrian journalists, aiming to disseminate investigative journalism in Syria and to enable Syrian F/M journalists to prove their presence at this type of journalism.
Since its inception, the Unit has produced a number of journalistic investigations. Moreover, SIRAJ trained a number of Syrian journalists on the basics of investigative journalism, and on gender-sensitive investigative journalism.
