WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2025 KHALED ALKHATEB INTERNATIONAL MEMORIAL AWARDS FOR BEST JOURNALISM FROM A CONFLICT ZONE

MOSCOW, DECEMBER 29, 2025 — RT has announced the winners of the 2025 Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards. This year, the jury honored three works by war correspondents covering one of the most high-risk operations carried out by Russian forces during the Special Military Operation, the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, and attacks targeting journalists in Palestine. 

“By establishing an award in honor of our colleague Khaled Alkhateb, who was killed while carrying out his journalistic duty in Syria, and by holding it for the eighth consecutive year, our channel seeks to support the difficult and sometimes life-threatening work of war correspondents,” said Maya Manna, head of RT Arabic. “Today, whether during the Special Military Operation or in other conflicts, they are working on the information front — the front of truth.”

Nearly 100 submissions were received this year from correspondents and film crews representing Russian and Arab media outlets, as well as independent journalists working in conflict zones. Their reporting covered the Special Military Operation and armed conflicts in the Middle East, including Palestine, southern Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria. 

WINNERS:

1. Amir Yusupov from Channel One (Russia) for exclusive footage of Operation Potok in Russia’s Kursk Region. Channel One’s film crew took part in a covert movement by Russian troops through the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhgorod gas pipeline behind Ukrainian positions. 

2. Ahmad Ghanim of Al Mayadeen (Lebanon) with a report from the Gaza Strip. The piece documents the devastating consequences of the blockade of Gaza, including a man-made humanitarian crisis and famine that have become part of everyday life for civilians. 

3. Fouad Jarada from the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation with a report on the fate of journalists in Gaza, where working in the media has become increasingly dangerous amid the fighting. The report focuses on a correspondent and a cameraman who were killed during the conflict and includes footage and photographs capturing the horrors of war, taken by journalists and activists at great personal risk. 

In 2025, the jury was chaired by Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of RT and the Rossiya Segodnya media group, and included RT Arabic war correspondent Maxim Toury, war reporter and founder of the WarGonzo project Semyon Pegov, and RT senior war correspondent in Gaza Saed Swerki. 

The RT network established the Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards in memory of 25-year-old journalist Khaled Alkhateb, who collaborated with RT Arabic. He was killed in a rocket attack by militants in Syria’s Homs province in 2017 while covering clashes between government forces and terrorist groups. In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree posthumously awarding him the Medal for Courage, which was presented to his family at the inaugural awards ceremony. 

Over the years, hundreds of war correspondents covering armed conflicts around the world — including in Syria, Gaza, and the Special Military Operation — have taken part in the competition. More than 20 journalists from Russia, Iraq, Ireland, Singapore, the US, Italy, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, India, and Argentina have received the award.