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We honoured the courage of Gazan journalists

On Wednesday 27 August London Freelance Branch held a vigil opposite Downing Street that honoured the courageous reporting of our colleagues in Gaza. The vigil followed the Branch delivering a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street, demanding to know what actual action he will take to address the mass killing of journalists.

Handing in the letter to 10 Downing Street, from left to right: Marian Elsa, LFB training officer; Pennie Quinton, Chair; and Mike Holderness, Freelance editor

Image © Julio Etchart

The letter was organised at an emergency Branch committee meeting called on 11 August after we received messages from members distressed at the targeting of Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al-Sharif alongside Al Jazeera camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, their assistant Mohammed Noufal, and correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh. All were killed in an airstrike on their press tent outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza; freelance photojournalist Mohammed Al-Khaldi was also killed in the same airstrike.

We held a vigil on 13 August and resolved to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister. Doing that requires 10 working days’ notice, fixing the date as 27 August.

On 25 August Israeli forces killed yet another five journalists in a “double-tap” strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. The journalists killed were: Hossam Al-Masri, a photographer working for Reuters news agency; Mohammed Salama, a photojournalist working for Al Jazeera; Maryam Abu Deqa, a journalist working for Associated Press and Independent Arab; Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance journalist working for NBC news; and Ahmed Abu Aziz, a freelance journalist working for Middle East Eye.

Following the second atrocity the letter to the Prime Minister was co-signed by the NUJ's London Central Branch; London Magazine Branch; London Digital Media Branch; officials of the Financial Times Group Chapel; Brussels Branch; Ethics Council and Photographers’ Council. It was also supported by Khaled Shalaby, head of video operations for Middle East Eye - who had seen his colleague Ahmed Abu Aziz killed at Nasser Hospital just two days previously; and by Sarah Beddington, writer and director of Fadia's Tree, an award-winning film about Palestinian exile.

Our colleagues in the press pen in Downing Street

Image © Pennie Quinton

At 17:30 we gathered for the vigil opposite Downing Street with the branch banner and another saying “stop killing Palestinian journalists”. As people arrived they each took a placard with the name of one of the journalists killed and formed a long line stretching up towards Trafalgar Square.

Branch chair Pennie Quinton thanked everyone for joining and standing together as media professionals to honour the courage of our colleagues in Gaza reporting from the frontline of the continuing genocide.

Pennie Quinton addresses the vigil

Image © Julio Etchart

Pennie explained that London Freelance Branch committee had called this event before the 25 August atrocity and that all those civilians went to work that day to do their duty as journalists and health workers – and this brazen war crime arrived on all our screens – one that even President Trump said he could not look at.

She went on to say that after hearing from our speakers “we will all say the journalists’ names and honour the courage of all 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.

As chair of London Freelance Branch, she felt she must particularly honour the courage of Maryam Abu Deqa, who was working for Associated Press (AP). As many journalists who are also mothers often do, worked freelance. She was described by AP in its initial statement as “a freelance killed”.

She asked those gathered to say aloud the name Maryam Abu Deqa and reflect on the mighty courage that it must take to report independently in a genocide.

The full speech is here.

Mariam Elsayeh

Image © Julio Etchart

Wael Dahdouh

Image © CC-BY 3.0 Nawaat

Branch training officer Mariam Elsayeh, who is a member of the NUJ Ethics Council, began with an impassioned speech describing the bravery and sacrifice of Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh.

She said: “A generation of journalists in Gaza have been erased... I'm not just looking for foreign journalists to get into Gaza, I would hope to see the Pope asking to get into Gaza, I would hope to see ministers here asking to get into Gaza, I would hope politicians in the European parliament would get in.”

Then we listened to the recording of the statement in Arabic that Wael Dahdouh had prepared especially for the vigil. Mariam then read an English translation of Wael’s words. “Fellow journalists have a huge duty to perform for their colleagues,” Wael said. “More than 240 colleagues, both male and female, were martyred, exterminated, killed, or targeted by direct fire, simply because they did their duty. Many, many of their families were scattered, torn apart, and killed. Some of them are still wounded, and some of them are still prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Wael continued: “Therefore, with all the horrific and heartbreaking images coming from the Gaza Strip, you must do your duty. We expect a lot from you, a lot from your conscience, a lot from your morals, and we will continue to wait for you to carry out your duties with all humanity, all seriousness, and also with all professionalism.”

Wael's full statement is translated here.

Sangita Myska

Image © Betty Dempsey

Broadcaster Sangita Myska described Palestinian journalists as “the bravest people in the world... they continue their work despite Israeli attacks and threats. But the West belittles their profession.”

At Nasser Hospital, she said, “Israel, like terrorist organisations, carried out a second attack on those arriving at the scene after the first strike... If Russia had killed five journalists on live broadcast, do you think the British media would have ignored it? I don’t think so.

“A Palestinian journalist being killed is not just the death of one person -- it is the death of journalism.”

There is video of Sangita Myska's full speech here on TikTok via Twitter (X).

It attracted wide attention, including an endorsement from singer Annie Lennox.

Ahmed Alnaouq

Image © Abdullah Bailey

Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq, co-founder of the Gazan “We Are Not Numbers” project, now working in the UK for Palestine Deep Dive, said: “Why does Israel kill journalists? Because it can. Because it knows it will answer to no one. Because reality is its greatest enemy. As long as no one opposes them, unfortunately, Israel will continue killing Palestinians.”

“The Palestinian journalists who were killed will not be forgotten; their stories will continue to be told, and we will shout their names.”

Ahmed read aloud the last will and testament of Maryam Abu Deqa, addressed to her son on the morning she was killed. The full text is here.

Omar Abdel-Mannan

Image © Abdullah Bailey

We were honoured to hear from Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan, the founder and president of Health Workers 4 Palestine, a fundraising and advocacy group. He is a British Egyptian paediatric neurologist, who launched the organisation to provide support and raise awareness for the plight of health workers on the front lines in Gaza and the broader health system in Palestine.

Omar's full speech is here.

Julia Katarina waits to read out the name of murdered journalist Iyad Matar

Image © Betty Dempsey

The reading of the names

Each person present then came to the microphone to say the name of the murdered journalist on the card they were carrying.

Classical musician and singer Julia Katarina sang the song Mawtini (“My Homeland”), that is often regarded by many Palestinians as their unofficial national anthem, the words of which are a poem by the Palestinian poet Ibrahim Tuqan.

We concluded with a brief Islamic prayer of mourning in absentia.