EPA Iraq chief photographer bags Premio Ischia award

London, July 3 (UNI) EPA Iraq chief photographer Ali Haider was honoured with the news photography prize of this year's edition of Italy's prestigious Premio Ischia awards for excellence in various sections of journalism.

Ali Haider received the award on Saturday in Ischia, Italy for the excellence of his photography work in covering the Iraqi drama in 2005 in its breaking news and human interest aspects.

Ali Haider who is with EPA since the inception of the worldwide operation of the agency in 2003, is 38 years old, married and has a son. From a production engineer in 1990, his skills and sensitivity drew him in news photography in 1998. The invasion of Iraq and the ensuing crisis put his gift for photography in the limelight.

''I warmly welcome this recognition by such a prestigious organization as the Premio Ischia because it perfectly reflects and confirms our appreciation of Ali's excellent quality of work" said Joerg Schierenbeck, the managing director of the European Pressphoto Agency who attended the awards ceremony.

Cengiz Seren, the editor in Chief of EPA, expressed his delight with this recognition which comes only a year after the prize given to the EPA staff photographer Nic Bothma for his dramatic coverage of the civil war in Liberia.

EPA, founded in 1985, established its reputation as the number one photo news agency in Europe with outstanding coverage of events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ousting of Mikhail Gorbachev and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In May 2003 it expanded into a world-wide picture service and successfully embraced this market with sustained performances in post-war Iraq, West Asia, Asia, the Far East, Africa and America. Today, its network of 400 photographers contributes to a daily EPA photo report of over 800 pictures.

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