Muscat: The Ministry of Information will organize next Monday the 2026 Media Excellence Competition awards ceremony at the Ministry's theatre to honour the winners across the various fields of the competition.
The competition aims to motivate national media cadres toward creativity and innovation, highlight their achievements, and consolidate positive competition among media institutions and individuals. This is alongside supporting digital media and electronic content creation, and documenting the winning works.
The competition is divided into four main fields: press, radio, television, and electronic media. It targets media institutions, individual practitioners and those interested in the media, as well as media students in academic institutions.
The press categories include the press article, press interview, investigative journalism, and photojournalism. The radio categories include talk shows, family programs, radio dramas, and cultural programs. Meanwhile, the television categories encompass talk and sports shows, variety programs, documentary programs and films, children's programs, and governorate reports.
As for the electronic media field, it comprises electronic broadcasting channel programs, podcasts, digital media campaigns, institutional electronic newspapers, news accounts and social media content creation for individuals, in addition to electronic content for media students in higher education institutions.
The prize is awarded to the first-place winner in each category of the competition, with a value of RO 1,500.
The competition is held biennially to provide the opportunity to present distinguished works and expand the competitive options for participation, alongside providing the necessary time for preparation and readiness.
The awards ceremony will be preceded by a number of accompanying events. These include a lecture titled "Future Media: Creativity and Innovation in the Era of Artificial Intelligence," presented by Abdulwahed Al Qahtani from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 25 October. Additionally, a workshop on "Writing Television Drama Scripts" will be presented by writer and trainer Hassan Dahshan from the Arab Republic of Egypt on 25 and 26 October.
The Media Excellence Competition, which launched its first edition in 2004, is a national initiative aimed at supporting media creativity and consolidating the role of the media as an active partner in achieving the objectives of Oman Vision 2040.