Death of a Journalist
Her name was Shireen Abu Akleh. She was 51 years old. She had been working for Al Jazeera for 25 years. She was recognized in the Arab world as one of its leading journalists. And she’s dead.
There is still some question about who killed her, but almost all of the evidence points to a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces. What makes it worse is that there is some indication that she was targeted because she was a journalist. Her employer, Al Jazeera, calls it “a blatant murder…” and that the Israeli soldiers “assassinated” her.
There are reports that the killer was a sniper.
If so, this would be part of a scary trend in war coverage and other coverage involving police and military. The reporter killed in the Ukraine, Brent Renaud, is also believed to have been targeted. In his case by Russian military. He was 50 years old. Several journalists covering the riots in America are believed to have been targeted by the police.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling for a “swift, transparent investigation into the shooting death” of Abu Akleh.
The International group, Reporters Without Borders, (RSF) is echoing that call, emphasizing that it has to be an “independent enquiry.” Its report notes that she was wearing a bulletproof best with the word “PRESS” on it, but that she was shot in the head.
News organizations and journalism groups around the world have joined in condemning the killing with many warning that it could have a ‘chilling effect’ on news coverage of conflicts.
The killing is getting extensive coverage from news groups around the world, and especially here in America. She was an American citizen.
In all that coverage, it is critical to remember her as a person as well as a journalist. Although she is not well known to American audiences, she was a leading figure in the Middle East and what many called an “inspiration” to young women there.
It’s a sentiment echoed by CNN producer Abeer Salman:
“One of the first female journalists that we as Palestinians watched on TV was Shireen Abu Akleh. Because of the conflict we are living through, news is something we watched every day, it was on all day long in every home. I grew up watching Shireen almost every day on TV in my house.
“So when I heard about her dying, it felt like a member of my family I saw every day and was living with was lost. Although she was an icon as a Palestinian journalist, she was very simple, humble and very funny. There is no one journalist in this region who was not friends with Shireen. She was friends with everyone.
“And I think we didn’t know how much we loved her until she was shot and killed
