Indian academy names veteran Gaza journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh person of the year

Kerala Media Academy announced on Friday that its person of the year award has been given to Palestinian correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh in recognition of his exceptional journalistic courage.

Al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, has been the face of the network’s coverage of Israel’s war and deadly attacks launched on the besieged territory since October.

He has also become a symbol of resilience as despite immense personal loss, he has continued to report on what is happening in Gaza.

Kerala Media Academy, a higher education institute run by the government of the southern Indian state of Kerala, said that it named Al-Dahdouh the Media Person of the Year on recommendations from the Investigative Journalists Association and the Media Magazine Editorial Board.

The academy said in a statement that Al-Dahdouh was “a global face of journalistic courage, who continues to work despite the heavy losses borne by his family.”

Al-Dahdouh’s wife Amna, son Mahmoud, daughter Sham and grandson Adam were killed in October after an Israeli air raid hit the home at the Nuseirat refugee camp where they were sheltering.

His other son Hamza, also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed on duty alongside videographer Mustafa Thuraya when a direct Israeli airstrike hit their car in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

Al-Dahdouh and his colleague, cameraman Samer Abudaqa, were injured in December while filming an Israeli attack on a UN school. Abudaqa bled to death as Israeli artillery prevented medics from reaching him.

In mid-January, Al-Dahdouh arrived in Qatar to undergo surgery for wounds sustained in the attack.

Anil Bhaskar, secretary of Kerala Media Academy, told Arab News that Al-Dahdouh was recognized for his fearless reporting that allowed the world see the true picture of the catastrophe in Gaza.

“His commitment and bravery are exemplary and set an example for other journalists not only in India but all over the world,” Bhaskar said.

According to UN reports, more than 122 journalists and media workers were among more than 27,000 people killed in Israel’s nearly four-month offensive in Gaza.

Press freedom watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists said last month that journalists were being killed in Gaza at a rate with no parallel in modern history and that there was “an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military.”