Broadcast Journalist Alhadi Hawari. (Courtesy).

Eye Radio journalist Alhadi Hawari has been named one of the best broadcast journalists of the year by United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization.

UNESCO awarded the journalist during the commemoration of World Radio Day in Juba on Monday. This year’s World Radio Day theme is “Radio and Peace”.

Speaking to Eye Radio on Monday, he dedicated the UNESCO award to all his colleagues at Eye Radio.

He also called on fellow media practitioners to continue covering stories of peace and reconciliation for a better South Sudan.

“Let’s work toward peace and reconciliation in our country so that we can achieve the vision of peaceful South Sudan and develop the land of milk and honey,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ayaa Winnie Eric, an aspiring journalist from Starford International University also won the Second Best Student Contestant award from UNESCO.

Winnie is a programmer at Eye Radio and presents a weekly youth talk-show at the station.

Other outstanding female winners of the Radio Day prize are Rita James Loro, and Emelda Siama John.

Rita from Sama FM, received a prize for the Best Broadcast Journalist while Emelda, a journalist working for Equator Broadcasting Corporation, became a runner-up after Winnie Eric.

The winners received smartphones and radio sets from UNESCO.

Alhadi Hawari is a veteran journalist with 16 years of experience in the Sudanese and South Sudanese media industry.

He first joined the Khartoum Monitor newspaper in 2007 as a reporter, and the same year, he received his accreditation from the Media Council of Sudan as a professional journalist.

In 2008, Hawari had attended numerous trainings in journalism in Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, and with Aljazeera in Qatar.

He then joined the Sudan National TV that year as a reporter.

In February 2009, the award-winning journalist then joined the Sudan Radio Service (SRS), now Eye Radio, as a Khartoum Bureau producer.

After renaming SRS to Eye Radio in Juba in December 2010, Alhadi Hawari became the presenter of the Dawn show, and presented the flagship program, together with Helen Samuel, from 2012 – 2013.

He was also a presenter of several programs such as “Your Government” and “Talk to the people.”

Hawari also reported extensively on the South Sudanese peace talks in 2014, and the subsequent 2018 peace negotiations in Addis Ababa and Khartoum.