Gaza Journalists to Receive Golden Pen of Freedom Award

Since the escalation of conflict on October 7 2023, Gaza has become one of the most perilous places for journalists.

The Wire Staff

Since the escalation of conflict on October 7 2023, Gaza has become one of the most perilous places for journalists.

gaza journalists to receive golden pen of freedom award

The blood-stained camera that freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, was carrying when she was killed in a double Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Photo: X/Gaza Notifications

New Delhi: In a powerful recognition of courage amid catastrophe, the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has announced that professional photo and video journalists working in Gaza will receive the 2026 Golden Pen of Freedom award. The award will be presented on Monday (June 1, 2026), during the opening of the World News Media Congress in Marseille, France.

The Golden Pen of Freedom is WAN-IFRA’s annual press freedom prize, honouring individuals or organisations for outstanding contributions to defending and promoting press freedom. This year, it honours the Palestinian photographers and videographers affiliated with major international news agencies – Agence France-Presse (AFP), The Associated Press (AP), and Reuters – who have continued to deliver professional coverage under extraordinarily difficult and dangerous conditions.

“For over two and a half years, journalists in Gaza have recorded death, destruction, and human suffering in unparalleled terms,” the award citation states. The award explicitly acknowledges “the sacrifice and endurance of local Palestinian media professionals living and working in a war zone.”

According to a report in France 24, AFP photographer Mohammed Abed, who worked in Gaza until April 2024 before joining its Cairo bureau, will be among those at the ceremony in the French city of Marseille.

Since the escalation of conflict on October 7 2023, Gaza has become one of the most perilous places for journalists. Local media workers have operated without the protections often afforded to international correspondents. Many have lost colleagues, family members, and homes while continuing to document the story unfolding around them.

Since the Israeli government has barred foreign journalists from independently entering the blockaded territory since the war began, local journalists from Gaza have been partnering with global wire services, ensuring their work reaches audiences worldwide with the credibility and distribution those organizations provide.

While exact numbers remain disputed amid the chaos of war, reports from media watchdogs document dozens killed, many in circumstances that raise serious questions about intentional target murders. According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), at least 262 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 2023, a mortality rate of over ten per cent – dramatically higher than any other occupational group.

This article went live on May thirty-first, two thousand twenty six, at eleven minutes past five in the evening.

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