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‘Say their names and honour their courage’
LONDON FREELANCE Chair Pennie Quinton introduced our vigil on 27 August honouring colleagues killed in Gaza.
Pennie Quinton with the letter
THANK YOU all for coming today from your urgent deadlines and news shifts to stand together as media professionals to honour the courageous reporting of our colleagues in Gaza from the frontline of the continuing genocide.
London Freelance Branch committee had called this event before the latest 25 August atrocity - in which Israel’s forces targeted and killed five more of our journalist colleagues in a “double-tap” airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
These journalists were mown down as they reported live on air - the first strike on Nasser Hospital killed Hossam Al-Masri and the other four were killed alongside rescue workers, responding to that first "tap". All these civilians went to work to do their duty as journalists and health workers - and so this brazen war crime arrived on all our screens - one that even President Trump said he could not look at.
This killing of five journalist colleagues on 25 August followed fast on Israel’s assassination on 10 August of Al Jazeera’s Anas Al Sharif and four of his colleagues.
Today we will say their names and honour the courage of all the journalists murdered in this genocide.
To murder a journalist covering a conflict is a war crime.
We are living in an obscene and disgusting time when it has become the norm: to bomb hospitals, to slaughter and starve civilians, to torture and imprison doctors because they save lives and bring hope to the people of Gaza.
It is our duty to uphold and honour the journalists slaughtered the Nasser Hospital attack on 25 August. Their names are:
- Hossam Al-Masri, a photographer working for Reuters news agency
- Mohammed Salama, a photojournalist working for Al Jazeera
- Maryam Abu Deqa, a freelance journalist working for Associated Press and Independent Arab
- Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance journalist working for NBC news
- Ahmed Abu Aziz, a freelance journalist working for Middle East Eye
As chair of London Freelance branch of the NUJ I must particularly honour the courage of Maryam Abu Deqa. As many journalists who are also mothers often do, she worked as a freelance. An initial Tweet from Associated Press described her only as “a freelance” killed.
So now I want us all to say aloud the name Maryam Abu Deqa and reflect on the mighty courage that it must take to report independently in a genocide. Please take a deep breath and now let us together say her name: Maryam Abu Deqa.
Thank you, everyone.
Of course, we welcome the statement by the UK Foreign Secretary that “Civilians, healthcare workers and journalists must be protected. However, in the light of these atrocities we need the UK government to do whatever it takes to bring about an immediate ceasefire and an end to this genocide.”
This further horrifying atrocity adds urgency to the questions we asked of Keir Starmer in the letter that we delivered to 10 Downing Street today at 4pm.
London Freelance Branch of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) welcomed Keir Starmer’s statement on 11 August 2025 in which the Prime Minister said he was “gravely concerned” by the killing on 10 August of six journalists by the state of Israel and his call for an independent investigation into the targeting of Al Jazeera camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, their assistant Mohammed Noufal, and Al Jazeera correspondents Mohammed Qreiqeh and Anas al-Sharif. These journalists were all killed in an Israeli airstrike on a press tent outside the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza; the freelance photojournalist Mohammed Al-Khaldi was also killed in the same airstrike.
Back on 31 July Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, expressed deep concern that, “without any evidence to back its claims, the Israeli army has repeatedly accused Al Sharif and other Palestinian journalists of being terrorists or supporters of Hamas.” Her “fears for Al-Sharif’s safety” were borne out, with the Israeli army explicitly announcing that it had targeted Anas al-Sharif.
London Freelance Branch represents over 3000 freelance journalists within the membership of the national union.We wish to reinforce the call by NUJ general secretary Laura Davison: “That the Israeli military openly admitting to these atrocities brings into sharp focus the need for international action to end this impunity.
“We once again reiterate our call for the UK government, who claim to be committed to press freedom, to exert serious pressure to protect journalists, uphold international law and support an investigation by the International Criminal Court into the blatant targeting of journalists and media workers by Israeli forces. There must be immediate international action to end this obscene behaviour.”
Thank you all again for being here.
We honoured Gazan journalists full report
'When the only journalists are being slaughtered' teach-in report
Open letter on protecting journalists and defending truth in Gaza write to Starmer & Lammy - nuj.org.uk