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Mediapersons honoured with Zayed Medals

ABU DHABI — General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, awarded Zayed Medals to eight Arab and Western mediapersons, who have been the victims of violence while carrying out their duties in the Middle East.

The medals were awarded at a special ceremony held at his palace in Batin. Shaikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, and a number of Shaikhs, senior government officials, and prominent national and international journalists.

Among those who received medals was the BBC correspondent Frank Gardner who was badly injured while on duty in Saudi Arabia.

The British Ambassador to UAE, Edward Oakden, received the medal for BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers who was honoured posthumously for sacrificing his life while performing journalistic duty in Riyadh.

Others who were honoured posthumously included Atwar Bahjat, the Arabia channel correspondent, who was killed at the roadside in an explosion Samara, Samir Qasir who was killed in Lebanon, another channel Arabia correspondent Ali Al Khatib who was killed by a shell fired by a US tank in 2004 and Gibran Tony who was killed in 2005 in Beirut.

Arabia channel’s Jawad Kadhem and the correspondent of IBC channel, May Shadiyaq, also received a medal of honour.

The medals are made from monolithic pieces of rock falling from space.

The award ceremony was attended by Shaikh Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Ruler’ s Representative in the Eastern Region, and other dignitaries.