TRT World wins outstanding production award in Dubai

ANKARA

TRT World’s documentary series on life in a Syrian city after Turkish-backed forces liberated it from Daesh has received an award for outstanding production, the channel announced Thursday.

TRT World said in a written statement that the channel’s documentary series “Off the Grid: Jarablus rising from the ashes” won the Outstanding Documentary Production award at the BroadcastPro Middle East Awards in Dubai.

The documentary features the stories of residents of Jarablus who narrate the pain they endured under Daesh’s control.

Alexandra Pauliat, the documentary’s executive producer, accepted the award on behalf of the channel, the statement said.

The 7th edition of the ASBU BroadcastPro ME Selevision Summit and Awards 2017 was held on November 14 in Dubai.

It recognized excellence in the satellite and broadcast industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which sometimes includes Turkey in broader definitions.

“We, as TRT World, will continue to be the voice of the silent,” said Ibrahim Eren, Director General of TRT.

Eren thanked BroadcastPro ME for its recognition of the documentary which brought the seemingly endless suffering of Syrians to the attention of media experts.

For her part, Pauliat said: “We are happy to be the voice of the Syrians who have been suffering immense pain for the last few years.”

Fawaz al-Jasim, a Daesh victim in Jarablus, describes his days in a Daesh prison in the documentary.

“They hung me from the ceiling by my wrists and beat me until I passed out,” he said.

Thousands of Syrians have returned to the northern city of Jarablus since it was liberated nearly a year ago from the Daesh terrorist group.

Operation Euphrates Shield, which began last August and ended in March this year, was launched with the aim of eliminating the terrorist threat along the Turkey-Syria border with the use of FSA fighters backed by Turkish artillery and air cover.

After Syria’s civil war erupted in early 2011, Jarablus was controlled intermittently by the Daesh and PKK/PYD terrorist groups before being liberated last year.

Reporting by Zehra Aydin; Writing by Cansu Dikme