The Arab Journalism Award, the Middle East's most coveted prize for journalism, will get a comprehensive facelift in its 9th edition, which will see not only the addition of new categories and removal of old ones to keep pace with the developments in the media sector, but also a sea change in the entire structure of the award program, revealed the General Secretariat of the Award.

The details about the changes will be disclosed in October, it was announced.

The changes were necessitated by the immense developments in the media sector over the past few years since the establishment of the Award under the directives of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The General Secretariat of the Award disclosed that they went through a process of thorough consultations and deliberations before giving a new shape to the program. A large number of editors and media experts around the Arab world were consulted in this connection during the past few months, it was revealed.

A meeting of the governing board of the Arab Journalism Award in May had concluded that the award program needed to be revised and constituted a special committee to look into the issue. The committee, headed by Khalfan Al Roumi, former minister of Information, UAE, comprised of Mohammed Yousef, President, UAE Journalists Association, Dhai'n Shahin, Editor in Chief, Al Bayan, Ghassan Tahboub, Media Expert, Naser Al Dhahiri, Media Person and Ra'id Barqawi, Editor, Al Khaleej.

In its eight editions, 106 journalists from across the Arab world won the Arab Journalism Award so far in its various categories. The growing popularity of the award is evidenced by the increase in the participation, which crossed 3000 entries last year, drawn from 19 Arab countries. Established in 1999 with the objective of encouraging creativity and journalistic excellence in the Arab world, the Arab Journalism Award grew over the years to become the most coveted journalism prize in the entire Arab world.