Rewards which have symbolic value a year after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Four Gazan journalists were honored on Saturday October 12 in Bayeux with various war correspondent awards. AFP photographer Mahmud Hams won first prize in the photo category, Saher Alghorra the young photo reporter prize, Mohamed Abou Safia the television prize alongside John Irvine (ITV News) while their written press colleague Rami Abou Jamous (Orient XXI) won three trophies, a first in 31 editions.
Rami Abou Jamous, founder of Maison Presse Palestine, was honored with a prize in written press, in television and the Ouest-France Jean Marin prize. He has won awards in the written press and the Ouest-France prize for Gaza Journala day-by-day account of his daily life as a displaced person in Rafah after having had to leave his home in Gaza City in the face of the advance of the Israeli army. The “large format television” prize honors his documentary Gaza, escape hell with BFMTV.
Prove that you can be “Palestinian and a journalist”
In a video shot in a tent in a refugee camp in the enclave he calls home «in the villa»Rami Abou Jamous thanked the Bayeux prize for having proven that we could be “Palestinian and journalist”. He dedicated his prize to all his colleagues killed by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Mahmud Hams, from Agence France-Presse, already winner in September of the Visa d’or news in Perpignan, was rewarded for all of his coverage in Gaza. One of the winning photos shows a woman crying out in grief after an Israeli strike while searching for victims in the rubble of a building in Khan Younes, southern Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2023.
Joined on stage by part of the Agence France-Presse team in Gaza, now based outside the enclave, Mahmud Hams dedicated “this victory to all journalists who courageously and honestly cover the war in Gaza”predominant during this edition of the Prix Bayeux. “I am also very happy to win this award for the third time, I want to tell my colleagues in Gaza that our message is well received: the whole world is looking at Gaza through our lenses”added the photographer.
Ukraine not forgotten
Gazan Mohamed Abou Safia won the television prize with his ITV News colleague John Irvine for the report The white flagabout a Palestinian shot dead in the Gaza Strip while walking in the street with a white flag to meet family members. Finally, Gazan photographer Saher Alghorra, freelance for the Associated Press and Zuma Press, reached by video call because he still lives in Gaza, received the young photo reporter prize.
Anglo-American journalist Clarissa Ward of the CNN television channel said she felt “a real privilege to be president of the jury” at the opening of the awards evening. The only journalist to have managed to enter the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, she found “difficult to choose winners”all the nominees returned it “very proud to be a journalist”.
In the radio category, Andrew Harding won with Sarah’s storyan international investigation to find the smugglers who launched an inflatable boat in which Sara, a 7-year-old Iraqi girl, died while trying to cross the Channel with her family to escape being sent back to their country. The Ukrainian conflict also found a place in the list with the public prize awarded to photographer Kostiantyn Liberov Libkos for The war in Ukraine. Pain, despair and hope. France 2 and BFMTV also received awards for reporting in Ukraine.
Source: www.liberation.fr
