DUBAI: Dubai Lynx, a prominent creative festival and awards program organized by Cannes Lions, has announced the jury presidents for the 2025 awards.

They will gather in Dubai early next year, along with the jury panelists, to judge the entries. The deadline for entries is Jan. 23 and winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on April 9.

Jury presidents “play a pivotal role” in upholding the festival’s values of creativity and innovation “bringing their unparalleled expertise and unique perspectives to the judging process,” said Dubai Lynx chairman Philip Thomas.

They come from creative and advertising agencies in different markets including the UK, US, India, Australia and Germany.

The jury presidents for the 2025 edition include Chris Beresford-Hill, global chief creative officer of BBDO; Ryan McManus, chief creative officer of VML UK; Chioma Aduba, president of Droga5 New York; Mayuri Nikumbh, head of design at Conran Design Mumbai, India; Mihnea Gheorghiu, global chief creative officer of LePub; and Neo Mashigo, chief creative officer of The Up&Up Group, South Africa.

The others are Matt Murphy, global chief creative officer of 72andSunny; Aisha Blackwell, head of production services, Serviceplan MAKE Germany; Roberta Raduan, managing director, Klick Health, Latin America; Fiona Johnston, CEO of media, client and commercial at dentsu Australia; and Vanessa Ho Nikolovski, chief client and growth officer for Asia Pacific at Weber Shandwick.

The festival recently announced changes to its structure “designed to support the evolution of the industry across the Middle East and North Africa,” said Kamille Marchant, director of Dubai Lynx.

One change is the introduction of a mandatory requirement to provide cultural context when submitting an entry.

“This is something that we’ve seen play an increasingly important role in the jury rooms,” Marchant told Arab News.

“The question is designed to help the jury understand the cultural nuances, but also how the brand connects with this particular cultural insight and why it’s relevant at that particular moment in time,” she explained.

Additionally, instead of hosting one event a year, the festival will feature a year-round program offering “more intimate, focused, and high-impact experiences that cater to our community’s needs year-round,” Marchant said.

Based on roundtable discussions at Dubai Lynx 2024, the festival team has identified key areas that will inform the topics of upcoming meetups, C-suite roundtables, brand breakfasts and talent and training programs hosted by the festival.

“Our audience is looking for more than just a standalone event; they want opportunities to engage, learn, and celebrate throughout the year,” Marchant said.

The 2025 Dubai Lynx awards will also see changes to some categories such as the evolution of the Digital Lynx category to the Digital Craft Lynx.

This change is meant to celebrate “technological artistry” and reflects “the rapid shifts in the digital landscape, where groundbreaking ideas are infused with high-level craft to create impactful and immersive experiences across a growing range of digital platforms,” Marchant explained.

Other changes include an update to the Audio & Radio category to reflect the expansion of audio work beyond radio.

There will also be tweaks to the PR Lynx category to accurately reflect the current PR industry “not only in amplifying brand and campaign messages, but also in managing perceptions and connecting brands with culture,” she added.

Dubai Lynx has also introduced a Use of Humor sub-category in the Culture & Context category in response to feedback from the industry “who wanted us to create space for work that uses humor to engage audiences to be championed,” Marchant said.

“Over the past couple of years there has been a shift in (the) tone of the work that has been winning — with a lot more irreverence and playfulness — so the timing felt right to create a category where this kind of work can compete,” she added.

Lastly, new sub-categories have been added to the Social & Influencer category to “recognize the increasingly significant role creators play in shaping and amplifying brand messages,” Marchant said.

The changes to the awards are a result of industry collaboration. Dubai Lynx has an awards research and development team that speaks to experts across industries and countries to gather their input on “the current state of play while also previewing the future direction of the industry,” she added.

DUBAI: Media watchdogs have called on Syria’s new leaders to ensure the safety of all journalists in the country, and bring to justice those responsible for killing, imprisoning, and harassing media workers during Bashar Assad’s regime.

“While we wait for the missing to return and the imprisoned to be released, we call on the new authorities to hold the perpetrators to account for the crimes of killing, abducting, or jailing reporters,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

CPJ is also urging the new government to allow journalists and media workers access to information and locations without the fear or risk of being detained or questioned.

Syria is among the most dangerous countries for journalists ranking in 179th place out of 180 countries in the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.

Since 2011, more than 181 journalists have been killed — 161 by regime forces and 17 by Russian airstrikes — in addition to multiple others tortured and imprisoned by the Syrian regime and its supporters, according to RSF data.

Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF’s Middle East desk, said: “We demand that Bashar Assad be prosecuted for his crimes. Justice, long overdue, must finally be served for all victims of his abuses.”

He added that RSF is also aware of crimes against journalists committed by the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham, which has taken control in Syria, and called on the Islamist group to “hold their responsible members accountable, and to release all journalists still detained in the country, including those they have taken hostage.”

Dagher added: “Syria’s future leaders, whoever they may be, must ensure the safety of journalists and allow a free press to flourish.”

CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which calculates the percentage of unsolved journalist murders in each country relative to its population, has seen Syria make the list for the last 11 years, including as the top offender in 2023.

Since the Assad regime’s collapse, HTS has been releasing prisoners, with RSF confirming the release of two journalists: Syria Media Monitor’s Hanin Gebran, who was detained in June 2024, and blogger Tal Al-Mallouhi, who was detained in 2009.