In celebration of the World Environment Day, the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) on Tuesday held a workshop and distributed prizes and awards to journalists and newspapers that won this year's environmental journalism competition. Held with the support of Prince Turki Bin Nasser, chairman of the PME, the competition sought to stimulate awareness on the importance of preserving the environment. “The Arab World needs to come together and work together to promote sustainable development and environmental protection measures to avoid disasters such as the ones befalling the world today,” said Prince Turki as he congratulated the winners. Saudi Gazette journalist Amal Al-Sibai won the prize for the best newspaper article on environment for her story “Healthy Living Comes From a Healthy Planet.” The prince later announced his intention to make the competition an annual event and invited journalists and media professionals to participate in next year's competition. He also announced the creation of a new category for audio and video environmental awareness messages. “This competition, launched by Prince Turki, serves as an incentive and motivator for all journalists to focus the public's attention on the importance of environmental protection. The media plays a vital role in spreading environmental awareness in society,”. said Saad Salman Al-Shehri, director of the competition. “We hope the media will be more involved in inducing a sense of responsibility in all members of society and that all journalists will be partners in helping the PME achieve its goals in preserving a healthy environment in the Kingdom. We received 100 submissions for this competition and we wish to see more in the future,” he added. This year's winners are: Al-Yawm newspaper for best newspaper dedicated to spreading environmental awareness. Muhammad Dawood of Okaz newspaper for best journalist in covering environmental issues. Saudi Gazette's Amal Al-Sibai and Sulaiman Abdulaziz Al-Mesh'al of Al-Eqtisadiyah shared the award for best newspaper article. Yaser Ali Al-Maarek from Al-Jazira and Ali Taleb Sharaya from Asharq Al-Awsat shared the award for best investigative report. Muhammad Al-Zahrani from Okaz and Khalid Mehdi Rasheed from Al-Bilad shared the award for best photograph.
