The award “acknowledges the sacrifice and endurance of local Palestinian media professionals living and working in a war zone,” said WAN-IFRA. [Getty]
Professional photo and video journalists working in Gaza are to receive an annual press freedom award on Monday for risking their lives to report on the war, an association of publishers has said.
The 2026 Golden Pen of Freedom will be handed to representatives of global news agencies still operating in Gaza—Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters—”whose local journalists continue to provide consistent, professional coverage under extremely challenging conditions”, said the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
“For over two and a half years, journalists in Gaza have recorded death, destruction, and human suffering in unparalleled terms,” reads the citation of the award. “They are as much victims of the conflict as they are chroniclers of a war that erupted—and continues—around them.”
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says Israeli forces have killed more than 220 journalists, at least 70 of whom were killed in the context of their professional duties, since October 2023. Local groups put the number higher, at 270 journalists killed by Israel so far.
The award “acknowledges the sacrifice and endurance of local Palestinian media professionals living and working in a war zone,” said WAN-IFRA, which holds its 2026 World News Media Congress from Monday to Wednesday. “It also recognises colleagues injured and killed in the course of doing their job.”
The Israeli government has barred foreign journalists from independently entering the blockaded territory since it launched its genocidal war in October 2023, which killed more than 72,800 people, the majority of whom are women and children.
Despite an October 2025 ceasefire, Israel has attacked Gaza virtually daily, killing more than 900 people so far.
