Kazakh journalist receives WinTrade Woman of the Year Award

LONDON. KAZINFORM Kazakh journalist Akmaral Batalova won the WinTrade Woman of the Year Award 2019, for a series of reports and films about the protracted Syrian crisis. She was nominated for this award by a group of representatives of the House of Lords.

She is the only Kazakh journalist who has officially visited Syria during the military crisis, making a series of reports for the Khabar-24 TV channel. She has also covered the Syrian peace talks within the Astana Process, and regularly publishes articles on the Middle East, the Kazakh MFA's press service reports.
Over the past two years, Mrs. Batalova, together with the team from her production centre, Sesar Film Production, has produced four documentaries: on the Syrian crisis, the Astana Process, the anti-radicalisation of Islam, and the results of Kazakhstan's tenure as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The WinTrade international organisation was founded by British business leader Yvonne Thompson CBE in 1996, and aims to support the activities of women in various industries. This has included the foundation of an award that recognises women's achievements in various fields.

The WinTrade Award is presented across numerous specialities, including science, art, technology, journalism, and design. The 'Woman of the Year' category is awarded to a woman who has demonstrated outstanding integrity and progressive thinking in her work above and beyond in her work space, proving her ability to change perceptions of women and under-represented communities, or has been a catalyst of change for her audience.

The award ceremony was the culmination of the WinTrade Week held in London, aimed at presenting best practices, sharing experience and developing business contacts among women from around the world. This year's forum was themed "Womenomics in the Digital Age of Technology and Artificial Intelligence".

This year, 500 women from all over the world were nominated for the WinTrade Award in 20 nominations. More than 11,000 people participated in the online voting.

The ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the UK Erlan Idrissov, the ambassadors of Belarus, Georgia, and Uzbekistan, the members of the House of Lords Baroness Verma and Lord Sheikh, member of the House of Commons Helen Grant MP, and representatives of major international companies, including Facebook, MasterCard, Microsoft, the London Stock Exchange, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young.