Yemen women wins Arab world's first 'Pulitzer'

Nadia Al-Saqqaf, editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times, has been awarded the 2006 Gebran Tueni Award, a new prize from the World Association of Newspapers to honour an editor or publisher from the Arab region. Al-Saqqaf, the first woman ever to be appointed an editor in Yemen, received the award today at the opening of a conference in Lebanon entitled "Media In Danger - Press Under Siege". Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who spoke via video, said he hoped the Tueni award would become the Pulitzer Prize of the Arab world. Al-Saqqaf's paper is regarded as outspoken because it dares to criticise the government while offering its own solutions. It also deals with issues regarded as controversial, such as human rights and women's rights. (Via Editors' weblog)