EU Launches 17th Edition of the 'Samir Kassir' Award for Freedom of Press

Samir Kassir Award For Freedom of Press
Samir Kassir Award For Freedom of Press
TT

EU Launches 17th Edition of the 'Samir Kassir' Award for Freedom of Press

Samir Kassir Award For Freedom of Press
Samir Kassir Award For Freedom of Press

The European Union and the Samir Kassir Foundation launched the 17th edition of the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press on Wednesday.

The award, which the European Union has been handing out since 2006, honors the Lebanese journalist and writer Samir Kassir, who was assassinated in 2005. Over 3,000 candidates from the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa have taken part since it began.

In a video message shared on social media and broadcast on television, European Union Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf encouraged journalists from across the region to participate in this year’s edition.

“Together, let us continue defending freedom of expression and keeping democracy alive,” he said.

For her part, Samir Kassir Foundation President Gisele Khoury stressed the importance of the award as “it perpetuates a legacy that believes in freedom of expression… It is a beacon of hope for new journalists to help them preserve their profession and their freedom.”

The contest is open to candidates from North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf. The deadline for sending in applications is April 1st, 2022. Three awards will be granted for the best:

- Opinion Article
- Investigative Article
- Audiovisual News Report

The contributions must be centered on one or more of the following topics: the rule of law, human rights, good governance, fight against corruption, freedom of expression, democratic development, and citizen participation. The winner of each of the three categories will receive a prize of €10,000.

The jury will be composed of seven voting members from Arab and European media outlets and one observer representing the European Union. The names of the jury members will be released during the award ceremony, which will be held on June 1st, 2022, in Beirut, on the eve of the 17th anniversary of Samir Kassir’s assassination.

The contest regulations, application forms and details of the candidature file are available: www.samirkassiraward.org

For more information, send an email to: [email protected]



Japan Startup Hopeful Ahead of Second Moon Launch

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
TT

Japan Startup Hopeful Ahead of Second Moon Launch

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)

Japanese startup ispace vowed its upcoming second unmanned Moon mission will be a success, saying Thursday that it learned from its failed attempt nearly two years ago.

In April 2023, the firm's first spacecraft made an unsalvageable "hard landing", dashing its ambitions to be the first private company to touch down on the Moon.

The Houston-based Intuitive Machines accomplished that feat last year with an uncrewed craft that landed at the wrong angle but was able to complete tests and send photos.

With another mission scheduled to launch next week, ispace wants to win its place in space history at a booming time for missions to the Moon from both governments and private companies.

"We at ispace were disappointed in the failure of Mission 1," ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada told reporters.

"But that's why we hope to send a message to people across Japan that it's important to challenge ourselves again, after enduring the failure and learning from it."

"We will make this Mission 2 a success," AFP quoted him as saying.

Its new lander, called Resilience, will blast off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, along with another lunar lander built by US company Firefly Aerospace.

If Resilience lands successfully, it will deploy a micro rover and five other payloads from corporate partners.

These include an experiment by Takasago Thermal Engineering, which wants to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas with a view to using hydrogen as satellite and spacecraft fuel.

- Rideshare -

Firefly's Blue Ghost lander will arrive at the Moon after travelling 45 days, followed by ispace's Resilience, which the Japanese company hopes will land on the Earth's satellite at the end of May, or in June.

For the program, officially named Hakuto-R Mission 2, ispace chose to cut down on costs by arranging the first private-sector rocket rideshare, Hakamada said.

Only five nations have soft-landed spacecraft on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and, most recently, Japan.

Many companies are vying to offer cheaper and more frequent space exploration opportunities than governments.

Space One, another Japanese startup, is trying to become Japan's first company to put a satellite into orbit -- with some difficulty so far.

Last month, Space One's solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from a private launchpad in western Japan but was later seen spiraling downwards in the distance.

That was the second launch attempt by Space One after an initial try in March last year ended in a mid-air explosion.

Meanwhile Toyota, the world's top-selling carmaker, announced this week it would invest seven billion yen ($44 million) in Japanese rocket startup Interstellar Technologies.

"The global demand for small satellite launches has surged nearly 20-fold, from 141 launches in 2016 to 2,860 in 2023," driven by private space businesses, national security concerns and technological development, Interstellar said.