The board of trustees of the Mohamed Hassanein Heikal Foundation for Arab Journalism announced Tuesday that journalist Yousef Okail has won the 2025 Heikal Prize for Arab Journalism in its ninth edition.
The award was also given to investigative journalist Salma Abdel Aziz from Sudan and Yahya Al-Yaqubi from Gaza, Palastine, for their body of work published over the past year. Al-Yaqubi was unable to attend the ceremony due to the ongoing genocidal Israeli war on the strip.
At the award ceremony held at the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, Okail thanked “everyone who believes journalism can still make a difference, and that despite all the restrictions and challenges, it remains capable of lighting the way in the darkness of reality.”
Okail, a data journalist, has focused on social and political issues. His published investigations for Al Manassa during the award period ranged from economic pieces on the reproduction of austerity to political reports documenting hundreds of enforced disappearances. He also reported on the conditions of freelance imams and reporters, tuk-tuk and taxi drivers, and the deadly roads they share daily in Egypt’s new republic.
He further conducted content analysis of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s speeches since 2018, and contributed to cross-border investigations, including one exposing Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Another revealed the conflicts of interest in the government’s handover of Maadi Mabra Hospital to a social welfare association.
In his acceptance speech, Okail, who joined Al Manassa in March 2024, described himself as one of those “who came up the hard way.”
“I did not start in major publishing houses, nor were doors easily opened to me. But I chose to hold on to the dream of writing and investigating, to use numbers and data to tell people’s stories truthfully,” Okail said.
He added that he carried “the pain of a whole generation of independent journalists. I carry the pain of every journalist not protected by a syndicate nor recognized by an institution.”
Egyptian law restricts journalists’ right to join the syndicate by requiring employment in print outlets, excluding dozens of independent or online reporters from union protection.
The Heikal Prize, awarded annually since 2007, honors Arab journalists for outstanding Arabic-language work in newspapers and digital outlets. It seeks to support professional development, connect Arab reporters with global trends, and encourage exchanges between younger journalists in Egypt and abroad.
Al Manassa remains blocked inside Egypt despite applying for a license from the Supreme Media Council in October 2018, with full documentation, but has yet to receive a response.
The platform allows journalists anywhere to submit story ideas and drafts online, providing editorial and technical support through to publication.
Al Manassa congratulates colleague Yousef Okail and looks forward to the day when restrictions on independent outlets are lifted, allowing brilliant journalists like him to receive the union protection they deserve.
