You are here

  • Home
  • Arab News takes home 18 Society for News Design awards

Arab News takes home 18 Society for News Design awards

The total number of accolades now won by Arab News has reached 143 under the leadership of Abbas. (AN/File)
The total number of accolades now won by Arab News has reached 143 under the leadership of Abbas. (AN/File)
Short Url

https://arab.news/w2gcq

Updated 23 May 2024
Arab News
Follow

Arab News takes home 18 Society for News Design awards

Arab News takes home 18 Society for News Design awards
  • Honors continue newspaper’s winning streak
Updated 23 May 2024
Arab News
Follow

LONDON: Arab News secured 18 awards at the prestigious 45th edition of the Society for News Design’s competition, continuing its streak of recent accolades.

Saudi Arabia’s first English-language daily won awards of excellence in several categories, including page design for “Spotlight regional year-end collection” and “Events that shook the Arab world.”

The newspaper also received awards for infographics such as “The Kingdom vs. landmines” and the business year-in-review page design for “Beating the global financial turbulence.”

Other awards were received for: “Diriyah E-Prix: New teams, new brand” page design; “New era of Saudi football kicks off” page design; “Hajj 2023: The fast track to Makkah” page design; “Hajj 2023: The step-by-step guide to Hajj” infographics; “A defense industry trailblazer” Spotlight page design; “Egypt feels shark attack’s bite” Spotlight page design; “The ice menace” Spotlight page design; “Opinion Year-End Collection” Opinion page design; “Onions’ tears and inflation fears” Spotlight page design; “Douglas Okasaki” portfolio award; “Saudi Arabia Founding Day 2023” front page design; “King Charles III coronation” front page; “Accession to the British throne” page design; and “Saudi National Day: Why Riyadh?” cover wrap design.

The last two also received Awards of Excellence at the sixth Newspaper Design competition earlier this month.

Omar Nashashibi, head of design at Arab News, said: “Having had the privilege of serving as a judge at SND’s 44th Annual Creative Competition, I’ve seen the exceptional quality of entries firsthand.

“Winning 18 awards, doubling our tally from last year’s competition, is a remarkable achievement for Arab News and our design team, who should be very proud. These awards wouldn’t be possible without their talent and dedication, the world-class illustrators we collaborated with for our Opinion Year-End Collection, and Editor-in-Chief Faisal Abbas’ support and unwavering commitment to excellence in all aspects of our coverage.”

Founded in the US in 1979, SND annually recognizes the best examples of visual journalism worldwide across graphic design, illustration, web design, and infographics.

This year’s competition included entries from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, South China Morning Post, and Bloomberg.

The total number of accolades now won by Arab News has reached 143 under the leadership of Abbas.

Past recognition encompasses a range of special projects, including multiple international awards for “Saudi’s animal kingdom,” “The Kingdom vs. Captagon” deep dive, and the “FIFA Qatar World Cup 2022” special edition.

For more information about Arab News and its award-winning projects, visit https://www.arabnews.com/greatesthits.

Topics: Society for News Design awards

Related

Arab News awards total reach 125 with three new wins at Newspaper Design competition
Media
Arab News awards total reach 125 with three new wins at Newspaper Design competition
Arab News scoops 4 Merit Winner nods in 59th Society of Publication Designers competition
Media
Arab News scoops 4 Merit Winner nods in 59th Society of Publication Designers competition

Google must divest Chrome to restore competition in online search, US prosecutors say

Google must divest Chrome to restore competition in online search, US prosecutors say
Updated 4 sec ago
Reuters
Follow

Google must divest Chrome to restore competition in online search, US prosecutors say

Google must divest Chrome to restore competition in online search, US prosecutors say
  • Such changes would essentially result in Google being highly regulated for 10 years
  • Google controls about 90% of the online search market and 95% on smartphones
Updated 4 sec ago
Reuters
Alphabet’s Google must sell its Chrome browser to restore competition in the online search market it dominates, and take a broad range of other corrective actions, including sharing data and search results with competitors, US prosecutors argued to a judge on Wednesday.
Such changes would essentially result in Google being highly regulated for 10 years, subjecting it to oversight by the same Washington federal court that ruled the company maintained an illegal monopoly in online search and related advertising.
Google controls about 90 percent of the online search market and 95 percent on smartphones.
Court papers filed Wednesday night expand on an earlier outline for what prosecutors argued would dilute that monopoly. Google called the proposals radical at the time, saying they would harm US consumers and businesses and shake American competitiveness in AI. The company has said it will appeal.
The US Department of Justice and a coalition of states want US District Judge Amit Mehta to end exclusive agreements in which Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple and other device vendors to be the default search engine on their tablets and smartphones.
Google will have a chance to present its own proposals in December.
Mehta has scheduled a trial on the proposals for April, though President-elect Donald Trump and the DOJ’s next antitrust head could step in and change course in the case.

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris to launch digital business platform for ‘next generation of entrepreneurs’

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris to launch digital business platform for ‘next generation of entrepreneurs’
Updated 20 November 2024
Arab News
Follow

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris to launch digital business platform for ‘next generation of entrepreneurs’

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris to launch digital business platform for ‘next generation of entrepreneurs’
  • MONIIFY newsroom will focus on emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, India, and the GCC
  • Platform will launch on Nov. 26, and provide daily business updates to ‘help young people become rich,’ Sawiris says
Updated 20 November 2024
Arab News

LONDON: Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris is set to unveil MONIIFY, a new digital business newsroom designed to cater to millennials and Gen Z audiences with a focus on emerging markets.

Scheduled for launch on Nov. 26, MONIIFY aims to become the “go-to space for business, tech, and finance updates” tailored to young entrepreneurs navigating the modern economic landscape.

“Young people today need more than traditional business and finance news,” said Sawiris. “MONIIFY speaks directly to the next generation of entrepreneurs, in their language, on the platforms they want”.

Based in the UAE, the platform will spotlight industries shaping the future, such as technology, artificial intelligence, private equity, cryptocurrency, and energy, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia, India, and the GCC — regions described by Sawiris as “bursting with potential.”

The platform promises daily updates, including breakdowns of investment trends and business opportunities, along with interviews featuring successful entrepreneurs.

It will also offer content formats such as short videos, explainers, deep-dive interviews, and a masterclass series featuring industry leaders sharing their success blueprints.

CEO Michael Peters, former head of Euronews, said MONIIFY represents a collective effort by top media professionals.

“We have brought together the best media talent from international markets as well as emerging markets who believe strongly in the MONIIFY movement, and who represent our brand,” said Peters.

MONIIFY creators will feature leading voices in financial content, including Eisa Al-Habib (UAE), Uptin Saiidi (US), Anushka Rathod (India), Felicia Putri Tjiasaka (Indonesia), Osamah Essam El-Din (Saudi Arabia), and Sara and Aaron Wee (Singapore).

In a teaser interview, Sawiris, chairman of Egypt-based Orascom TMT Investments with an estimated net worth of $3.8 billion, said he was inspired by his desire to help young people achieve financial success.

“I want to help young people become rich — even richer than me,” he said.

Sawiris has a history of high-profile initiatives. In 2011, he sold Orascom Telecom to Russian telecom firm VimpelCom (now Veon) in a multibillion-dollar transaction. In 2015, he offered to buy a Greek or Italian island to house Syrian refugees, a plan that was ultimately rejected by both governments.

Topics: news media Naguib Sawiris

Related

UAE’s Chimera invests $100m in Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ Gemini 
Business & Economy
UAE’s Chimera invests $100m in Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ Gemini 

Advertising network Publicis Groupe partners with Dubai Business Women Council to support female businesses

Advertising network Publicis Groupe partners with Dubai Business Women Council to support female businesses
Updated 20 November 2024
Arab News
Follow

Advertising network Publicis Groupe partners with Dubai Business Women Council to support female businesses

Advertising network Publicis Groupe partners with Dubai Business Women Council to support female businesses
  • Publicis Groupe to host workshops focusing on public relations, brand communication, digital marketing
Updated 20 November 2024
Arab News

DUBAI: Advertising network Publicis Groupe Middle East has partnered with the Dubai Business Women Council to support female-founded micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

Founded in 2022 by Dr. Raja Easa Al-Gurg, chairperson and managing director of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, the Dubai Business Women Council serves as a platform for the personal and professional development of businesswomen in Dubai.

This partnership will see Publicis Groupe host a series of workshops aimed at providing female business owners with a comprehensive knowledge of brand marketing and communications.

The first workshop, titled “The Power of Founder-Led Brands,” took place on Nov. 14 and was led by Andira Raslan, business director, and Sophia Boudjemaa, business director of strategy and insights, MSL Group Middle East.

During the session, Raslan and Boudjemaa emphasized the importance of personal branding and talked about strategies for building trust, increasing customer engagement, and instilling authenticity and personality in a brand.

Public relations, brand communication, digital marketing, social media strategies, innovation and growth are some of the topics that will be covered during future sessions.

“Effective marketing and communication can transform businesses, yet access to this knowledge and resources isn’t always within reach for small business owners,” said Bassel Kakish, CEO of Publicis Groupe Middle East and Turkiye.

The workshops aim to “democratize these insights and break down barriers for women entrepreneurs so they can elevate their brands,” he added.

Supported by the network’s in-house training and upskilling department Publicis Academy, the workshops are structured based on a survey conducted by the network to identify the challenges faced by micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

Nadine Halabi, head of business development and operations at the Dubai Business Women Council, said: “Empowering female entrepreneurs with the tools to elevate their brands is crucial for fostering innovation and growth within Dubai’s business landscape.

“Working with the experts at Publicis Groupe Middle East provides our members with access to strategic marketing and communication insights typically reserved for larger corporations.”

Topics: Publicis Groupe Female entrepreneurs

British MPs to summon Elon Musk over X’s role in summer riots

British MPs to summon Elon Musk over X’s role in summer riots
Updated 20 November 2024
Arab News
Follow

British MPs to summon Elon Musk over X’s role in summer riots

British MPs to summon Elon Musk over X’s role in summer riots
  • Inquiry will examine the impact of generative AI and social media in spreading harmful content
  • X is accused of playing an active role in spreading false claims that led to uprisings against minorities across the country
Updated 20 November 2024
Arab News

LONDON: Elon Musk, the CEO of X and a new appointee in Donald Trump’s administration, will be summoned by British MPs to testify about the role of his social media platform in spreading disinformation during the riots that shook England and Northern Ireland this summer, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The hearing, part of a Commons science and technology select committee inquiry into social media, is set to take place early next year.

Executives from other major platforms, including Meta and TikTok, are also expected to be called to testify.

“(Musk) has very strong views on multiple aspects of this,” said Chi Onwurah, the Labour chair of the select committee. “I would certainly like the opportunity to cross-examine him to see … how he reconciles his promotion of freedom of expression with his promotion of pure disinformation.”

She added that the session could “make up for” Musk’s reported frustration at being left out of a UK government investment summit in September.

The inquiry will examine the impact of generative AI and social media in spreading harmful content, particularly during the riots.

Images and posts shared on X and Facebook falsely claimed the attacker involved in the killing of three schoolgirls in Southport in August was a Muslim asylum-seeker.

These false claims fueled Islamophobic protests and violence targeting minorities, including asylum-seekers.

One individual was arrested under the Public Order Act for inciting racial hatred on X. The platform found the same content did not violate its policies on violent threats.

Musk himself joined the online discussion, controversially claiming that “Civil war is inevitable.”

His remarks drew backlash and accusations of meddling in foreign affairs, a criticism that he has faced again for commenting on Italy’s migration policies.

The inquiry comes as X faces increased scrutiny for its inability to curb misinformation and its updated terms of service, which allow the platform to train AI models on user data. This has led to millions of users abandoning the platform.

In an effort to calm the waters, former Labour minister Peter Mandelson, tipped as a potential UK ambassador to Washington, recently called for an end to the “feud” between Musk and the UK government, arguing that it is “unwise” for Britain to alienate him.

The committee’s investigation will also examine how Silicon Valley’s business models, including algorithmic amplification, contribute to the spread of misleading or harmful content.

Onwurah emphasized the need to “get to the bottom of the links between social media algorithms, generative AI, and the spread of harmful or false content.”

Topics: Elon Musk X UK misinformation UK riots

Related

Guardian exits Elon Musk’s X platform over ‘toxic content’ and US election coverage
Media
Guardian exits Elon Musk’s X platform over ‘toxic content’ and US election coverage
What is Bluesky, the fast-growing social platform welcoming fleeing X users?
Media
What is Bluesky, the fast-growing social platform welcoming fleeing X users?

Taliban govt clearing ‘un-Islamic’ books from Afghanistan shelves

Taliban govt clearing ‘un-Islamic’ books from Afghanistan shelves
Updated 20 November 2024
AFP
Follow

Taliban govt clearing ‘un-Islamic’ books from Afghanistan shelves

Taliban govt clearing ‘un-Islamic’ books from Afghanistan shelves
  • Committee identified 400 titles “that conflicted with Islamic and Afghan values”
Updated 20 November 2024
AFP

KABUL: Checking imported books, removing texts from libraries and distributing lists of banned titles — Taliban authorities are working to remove “un-Islamic” and anti-government literature from circulation.
The efforts are led by a commission established under the Ministry of Information and Culture soon after the Taliban swept to power in 2021 and implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia.
In October, the ministry announced the commission had identified 400 books “that conflicted with Islamic and Afghan values, most of which have been collected from the markets.”
The department in charge of publishing has distributed copies of the Qur'an and other Islamic texts to replace seized books, the ministry statement said.
The ministry has not provided figures for the number of removed books, but two sources, a publisher in Kabul and a government employee, said texts had been collected in the first year of Taliban rule and again in recent months.
“There is a lot of censorship. It is very difficult to work, and fear has spread everywhere,” the Kabul publisher told AFP.
Books were also restricted under the previous foreign-backed government ousted by the Taliban, when there was “a lot of corruption, pressures and other issues,” he said.
But “there was no fear, one could say whatever he or she wanted to say,” he added.
“Whether or not we could make any change, we could raise our voices.”


AFP received a list of five of the banned titles from an information ministry official.
It includes “Jesus the Son of Man” by renowned Lebanese-American author Khalil Gibran, for containing “blasphemous expressions,” and the “counterculture” novel “Twilight of the Eastern Gods” by Albanian author Ismail Kadare.
“Afghanistan and the Region: A West Asian Perspective” by Mirwais Balkhi, an education minister under the former government, was also banned for “negative propaganda.”
During the Taliban’s previous rule from 1996 to 2001, there were comparatively few publishing houses and booksellers in Kabul, the country having already been wracked by decades of war.
Today, thousands of books are imported each week alone from neighboring Iran — which shares the Persian language with Afghanistan — through the Islam Qala border crossing in western Herat province.
Taliban authorities rifled through boxes of a shipment at a customs warehouse in Herat city last week.
One man flipped through a thick English-language title, as another, wearing a camouflage uniform with a man’s image on the shoulder patch, searched for pictures of people and animals in the books.
“We have not banned books from any specific country or person, but we study the books and we block those that are contradictory to religion, sharia or the government, or if they have photos of living things,” said Mohammad Sediq Khademi, an official with the Herat department for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV).
“Any books that are against religion, faith, sect, sharia... we will not allow them,” the 38-year-old told AFP, adding the evaluations of imported books started some three months ago.
Images of living things — barred under some interpretations of Islam — are restricted according to a recent “vice and virtue” law that codifies rules imposed since the Taliban returned to power, but the regulations have been unevenly enforced.
Importers have been advised of which books to avoid, and when books are deemed unsuitable, they are given the option of returning them and getting their money back, Khademi said.
“But if they can’t, we don’t have any other option but to seize them,” he added.
“Once, we had 28 cartons of books that were rejected.”


Authorities have not gone from shop to shop checking for banned books, an official with the provincial information department and a Herat bookseller said, asking not to be named.
However, some books have been removed from Herat libraries and Kabul bookstores, a bookseller told AFP, also asking for anonymity, including “The History of Jihadi Groups in Afghanistan” by Afghan author Yaqub Mashauf.
Books bearing images of living things can still be found in Herat shops.
In Kabul and Takhar — a northern province where booksellers said they had received the list of 400 banned books — disallowed titles remained on some shelves.
Many non-Afghan works were banned, one seller said, “so they look at the author, whose name is there, and they are mostly banned” if they’re foreign.
His bookshop still carried translations of Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Gambler” and fantasy novel “Daughter of the Moon Goddess” by Sue Lynn Tan.
But he was keen to sell them “very cheap” now, to clear them from his stock.

Topics: Taliban Afghanistan Book

Latest updates

Google must divest Chrome to restore competition in online search, US prosecutors say
Google must divest Chrome to restore competition in online search, US prosecutors say
Paolini’s Italy beat Slovakia to win Billie Jean King Cup
Paolini’s Italy beat Slovakia to win Billie Jean King Cup
Xi and Lula call for peace in Ukraine, ceasefire in Gaza
Xi and Lula call for peace in Ukraine, ceasefire in Gaza
Zelensky says Crimea can only be restored to Ukraine through diplomacy
Zelensky says Crimea can only be restored to Ukraine through diplomacy
India’s Modi offers aid to Caribbean nations while meeting leaders in Guyana
India’s Modi offers aid to Caribbean nations while meeting leaders in Guyana

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.