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NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Neal Conan Prize for Excellence in Journalism has named Mohammed R. Mhawish as the 2025 winner of its annual $50,000 award, following a presentation ceremony held on November 22 in New York City. The Prize honors a mid-career journalist whose work demonstrates exceptional craft, integrity, and dedication to public-interest storytelling.
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In this documentary short, Mohammed R. Mhawish, 2025 Neal Conan Prize winner, discusses his deep sense of responsibility to chronicle the experiences of his fellow Gazans, despite the extraordinary risks that such an effort entails, given the global reach of his work. jwplayer('myplayer1').setup({file: 'https://mma.prnasia.com/media2/2836352/Neal_Conan_Prize_2025_Winner.mp4', image: 'https://mma.prnasia.com/media2/2836352/Neal_Conan_Prize_2025_Winner.mp4?p=thumbnail', autostart:'false', stretching : 'uniform', width: '512', height: '288'});
Mhawish's reporting and essays have appeared in major international publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation, and This American Life. A native of Gaza, Mhawish is known for his reporting on the Palestinian experience--work distinguished by its narrative clarity and rigorous sourcing across print, audio, and multimedia formats. Originally trained in literature and drama, he began his career teaching narrative structure before transitioning into journalism—a foundation that continues to shape his approach to observation, character, and story construction across formats.
One of the World's Most Significant Investments in Future Journalism
The Neal Conan Prize is the most generous unrestricted journalism award in the world dedicated to enabling a journalist's future work. Unlike traditional honors that focus solely on past accomplishments, the Prize is structured as a direct, unrestricted investment in the next chapter of a reporter's career. The $50,000 grant can be used by the winners for any purpose, including supporting ambitious new projects, extended reporting time or continued professional development.
This future-oriented mission resonates strongly in Asia's rapidly transforming media markets, where organizations face intense pressure to produce short-form or entertainment-driven content. The Prize helps sustain the thoughtful, research-based reporting associated with its namesake, longtime National Public Radio (NPR) host and correspondent Neal Conan.
Origins of the Prize
The Prize was created in 2023, two years after Conan's passing and a decade after the cancelation of Talk of the Nation, his respected NPR program known for its depth and public-interest mission. At the ceremony, author Gretel Ehrlich, Conan's longtime partner, reflected on that turning point:
"When Talk of the Nation was unceremoniously canceled, Neal was crushed… His life's work had been taken from him. The message he heard back was that serious reporting didn't raise as much money as entertainment."
The Prize was founded to preserve the standards Conan embodied—curiosity, rigor, fairness, and a belief that audiences value substantive journalism.
Mhawish on Receiving the Prize
"Standing here tonight, able to speak and be recognized in this way, feels extraordinary and profoundly humbling. This award may have my name on it, but it belongs to my colleagues and to everyone who believes that truth still matters."
About the Neal Conan Prize
Administered through the Neal Conan Prize for Excellence in Journalism Fund at Greater Horizons, the Prize recognizes mid-career journalists who exemplify excellence in craft, originality, depth of research, and public service. The unrestricted award is intended to support continued professional growth and future reporting.
More information: nealconanprize.org
Video - https://mma.prnasia.com/media2/2836352/Neal_Conan_Prize_2025_Winner.mp4
NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Neal Conan Prize for Excellence in Journalism has named Mohammed R. Mhawish as the 2025 winner of its annual $50,000 award, following a presentation ceremony held on November 22 in New York City. The Prize honors a mid-career journalist whose work demonstrates exceptional craft, integrity, and dedication to public-interest storytelling.
In this documentary short, Mohammed R. Mhawish, 2025 Neal Conan Prize winner, discusses his deep sense of responsibility to chronicle the experiences of his fellow Gazans, despite the extraordinary risks that such an effort entails, given the global reach of his work. jwplayer('myplayer1').setup({file: 'https://mma.prnasia.com/media2/2836352/Neal_Conan_Prize_2025_Winner.mp4', image: 'https://mma.prnasia.com/media2/2836352/Neal_Conan_Prize_2025_Winner.mp4?p=thumbnail', autostart:'false', stretching : 'uniform', width: '512', height: '288'});
Mhawish's reporting and essays have appeared in major international publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation, and This American Life. A native of Gaza, Mhawish is known for his reporting on the Palestinian experience--work distinguished by its narrative clarity and rigorous sourcing across print, audio, and multimedia formats. Originally trained in literature and drama, he began his career teaching narrative structure before transitioning into journalism—a foundation that continues to shape his approach to observation, character, and story construction across formats.
One of the World's Most Significant Investments in Future Journalism
The Neal Conan Prize is the most generous unrestricted journalism award in the world dedicated to enabling a journalist's future work. Unlike traditional honors that focus solely on past accomplishments, the Prize is structured as a direct, unrestricted investment in the next chapter of a reporter's career. The $50,000 grant can be used by the winners for any purpose, including supporting ambitious new projects, extended reporting time or continued professional development.
This future-oriented mission resonates strongly in Asia's rapidly transforming media markets, where organizations face intense pressure to produce short-form or entertainment-driven content. The Prize helps sustain the thoughtful, research-based reporting associated with its namesake, longtime National Public Radio (NPR) host and correspondent Neal Conan.
Origins of the Prize
The Prize was created in 2023, two years after Conan's passing and a decade after the cancelation of Talk of the Nation, his respected NPR program known for its depth and public-interest mission. At the ceremony, author Gretel Ehrlich, Conan's longtime partner, reflected on that turning point:
"When Talk of the Nation was unceremoniously canceled, Neal was crushed… His life's work had been taken from him. The message he heard back was that serious reporting didn't raise as much money as entertainment."
The Prize was founded to preserve the standards Conan embodied—curiosity, rigor, fairness, and a belief that audiences value substantive journalism.
Mhawish on Receiving the Prize
"Standing here tonight, able to speak and be recognized in this way, feels extraordinary and profoundly humbling. This award may have my name on it, but it belongs to my colleagues and to everyone who believes that truth still matters."
About the Neal Conan Prize
Administered through the Neal Conan Prize for Excellence in Journalism Fund at Greater Horizons, the Prize recognizes mid-career journalists who exemplify excellence in craft, originality, depth of research, and public service. The unrestricted award is intended to support continued professional growth and future reporting.
More information: nealconanprize.org
Video - https://mma.prnasia.com/media2/2836352/Neal_Conan_Prize_2025_Winner.mp4
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Mohammed R. Mhawish Named 2025 Recipient of the Neal Conan Prize for Excellence in Journalism
SINGAPORE, April 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- For decades, beer ads have belonged to the big guys, million-dollar productions, glossy beaches and celebrity cameos that cost more than a craft brewery makes in a year. For independent brewers like Brewlander, it was never a fair fight. Until now.
With the rise of text-to-video AI like Sora and Qwen 2.5, the rules have changed. Today, anyone with a keyboard can make an epic film without spending a cent. So Brewlander decided to do just that.
To show how Brewlander is the beer that invests in the beer, the brand didn't film commercials, it printed them. Posters, billboards, magazines, all featuring detailed AI prompts that anyone could type in to instantly generate over-the-top beer ads. The kind of ads independent brewers were never supposed to afford.
Examples included:
"Surfers ride black sea horses through an underwater world of neon coral reefs, past glowing jellyfish, raising their ice-cold Brewlanders."
"A colossal Brewlander bottle floats in a galaxy of bubble-planets and star-balls."
To make it even more rewarding, fans who generated their own Brewlander ads received exclusive discounts on the beer.
At the end of the day, the message was a brilliant move: Brewlander doesn't invest in million-dollar commercials, it invests in what matters: the beer itself.
About Brewlander
Brewlander was born out of John's passion for homebrewing (and his online moniker on brewing forums), and we've kept that homebrew tradition of having fun and pushing the envelope well alive.
Back in 2016, John and a few friends came up with a wild idea: to make his award-winning brews available to the wider public. Taking a leap of faith, he gave up his day job and plunged headfirst into the project with the mission to challenge the status quo of Asia's beer scene, while putting Singaporean brews on the world beer map.
Brewlander splashed onto Singapore's craft beer scene on 14 March 2017, launching to glowing response from the local beer community and the media as Singapore's first gypsy brewer.
About BLKJ Havas
BLKJ Havas is a creative company that engineers marketing moments for brands in culture, entertainment and media. It prides itself as the un-advertising agency - because people hate advertising, and we love people.
Now more than 8 years in business, the agency is amongst the most awarded and successful in the region. It is currently ranked the #1 Agency in Singapore, #8 in Asia by Campaign Brief THE WORK 2024. It is Spikes Asia 2024's Singapore Agency of the Year, and Top 10 APAC Agency of the Year.
Its strong regional and Singapore client roster includes Reckitt, JLL, JBL Harman, Great Eastern, Land Transport Authority of Singapore, Republic of Singapore Air Force, Singapore Tourism Board, Ministry of Education Singapore, IMDA and more.
For more, check out: blkjhavas.agency
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THIS BEER BRAND DIDN'T FILM COMMERCIALS, IT PRINTED THEM
