If not today, then when?

We have to honor Shireen Abu Akleh’s memory with something more than mourning her loss and denouncing her assassins and their repressive grip on Palestinian lives.

This moment must be known as the turning point in the struggle for freedom of expression for journalists and our embattled allies in civil society throughout the Middle East.

Suppose we don’t act now to advance safety and freedom for reporters. In that case, researchers, artists, and musicians, our children will rightly accuse us of ineptitude when the whole world knew and, yes, even cared about our misery.

We demand to know the truth about who assassinated Abu Akleh and demand accountability from her murderers.

But this must also be the moment we turned a new page in the history of our quest for truth and freedom.

Nearly every nation in the Arab League has denounced Shireene’s assassination and demanded the government that killed her adhere to international norms of press freedom.

From our position as part of the civil coalition to defend freedom of information and the right to know the truth, the Middle East Institute for Media and Policy Studies (MEMPSI) calls on the Arab League’s 22 member states to immediately release the more than 100 journalists held in our jails.

It’s time for us to lead.

Mohammad Fakhri Elajlouni- Middle East Institute for Media and Politics Studies, Trustee Board Chairman