On 4 June 2024, the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon and the Samir Kassir Foundation announced the results of the 19^th edition of the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press, in a ceremony held at the Sursock Palace Gardens, in Beirut. This Award, established and funded by the European Union, is recognized internationally as a flagship prize for press freedom and the most prestigious journalism award in the Middle East, North Africa and Gulf region. Since 2006, the Award ceremony has been held annually to commemorate the anniversary of Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir’s assassination on 2 June 2005 in Beirut, and celebrate his life, his values, and his memory.

The Samir Kassir Award is open to professional journalists from eighteen countries of North Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf. This year, a record 354 journalists participated in the competition, hailing from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. 114 candidates competed in the Opinion Piece category, 161 in the Investigative Article category, and 79 in the Audiovisual News Report category. The winner in each of the three categories is awarded a prize of €10,000. Each of the short-listed finalists per category receive a €1,000 prize.

The Ambassador of the European Union to Lebanon, Sandra De Waele, said: “The European Union established the Samir Kassir Award to honour his life and what he stood for, and to remind ourselves that he paid the ultimate price for doing his job. Far too many journalists have lost their lives on the job or for simply expressing themselves. On this occasion, allow me to pay tribute to the brave men and women that were killed or injured in recent months, to bring us news from Gaza or southern Lebanon. We can never say this enough. Journalists are not a target.”