Gaza-based AFP, AP and Reuters Journalists Receive 2026 WAN-IFRA Golden Pen of Freedom Award

Journalists working in Gaza received the 2026 Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of News Publishers at the World News Media Congress in Marseille on Monday, June 1. Mohammed Abed of Agence France-Presse, Fatima Shbair of the Associated Press, and Mohammed Salem of Reuters accepted the award on behalf of journalists in Gaza.

Abed said they accepted the award for colleagues still inside Gaza and for journalists killed while doing this work.

He said the first challenge of covering Gaza is that you are not covering someone else’s war but living it every single day. Abed said: “We are Palestinian. Gaza is our home. When I photographed a funeral, I was often photographing people I knew.

Shbair said the second challenge is there is no rest in coverage because journalists cannot rotate in and out of the conflict zone. She said foreign reporters were banned from Gaza except for those on tours by the Israeli military. Shbair said: “As a journalist, you have a job to do.

Salem said the third challenge was doing the work at great personal cost. He said he lost his brother Bilal in the war and that Bilal was a journalist. The head of the Committee to Protect Journalists stated that Israel’s war on Gaza is more deadly to journalists than any previous war.

Palestinians gathered at the site of an Israeli strike at a cafe at the seaport of Gaza City on May 31, 2026.