AMEJA Awards

2023 Winners & Finalists

Honoring journalism that sharpened understanding, deepened accountability, and expanded how Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African communities are covered.

Awards for work that moved the field

This year’s winners and finalists represent reporting, criticism, visual storytelling, and audio work that pushed beyond simplification. The work here challenged stale assumptions, documented violence with rigor, and expanded what ambitious coverage of our communities can look like.

About the awards These honors recognize excellence across investigative reporting, opinion, culture, visual journalism, audio, emerging voices, and member work. Winners are listed first in each category, followed by finalists.

Best Coverage of the MENA Region

Winner

“Intercepted at Sea”

Yara El Murr & Annia Ciezadlo

The Public Source

Finalists

“Drowning in Lies”

Ali Al Ibrahim, Mohammed Bassiki, Eman El-Sharbini, Manal Hassan, Yara Halabi — SIRAJ

Bashar Deep, Sara Kreita, Maud Jullien — LightHouse Reports

Mohannad Al-Najjar — Der Spiegel

Daraj & SIRAJ — Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism

“VICE Special Report: Death of a Protester”

Hind Hassan, Lama al-Arian, Daniel Bateman, Philip Pendlebury, Oren Rosenfeld, Ayman Ramouz, Joel Winter, Rio Roye, Ana Simoes, Kaz Ishli, Susie Kim, Svetlana Didorenko, Lucas Mumford, Lillian Patterson, Tom Laws-Brown, Ellen Franklin, Sean Stephens, Craig Thomson, Maral Usefi, Eyal Weizman — VICE

“Sudan Video Diaries”

Alsanosi Adam, Iman Hassan, Weam Shawgi, Alhadi Alrhima, Jalia Yusuf — Voice of America