The National Press Club and an Al Jazeera newsroom leader Thursday called for an independent investigation of the death of one of the network’s reporters who was covering an Israeli military action in a Palestinian city. The statements were made during an event at the Club that included a moment of silence for Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot in the head and killed while reporting on an Israeli raid in Jenin in the northern West Bank.
Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American, was wearing a vest marked “press” and a helmet. She was with a group of four journalists who were similarly identified as working reporters.
“Today, the National Press Club stands with our colleagues in calling for an independent and impartial investigation of the killing of Shireen,” Club Treasurer Emily Wilkins said before beginning the moment of silence. “While we are still learning the details of the shooting, we do not need an investigation to tell us that her death is, in the words of Pentagon spokesman Ned Price, ‘an affront to media freedom everywhere.’”
Al Jazeera also is pressing to learn the details of Abu Akleh’s death.
“Al Jazeera is clear in its position that the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, was an Israeli bullet,” Al Jazeera Washington bureau chief Abderrahim Foukara said at the Club event. “Al Jazeera is clear that it wants a thorough, transparent and fair investigation to shed light so that the whole world can see what happened to Shireen Abu Akleh.”
Abu Akleh had worked for Al Jazeera for 25 years and was known throughout the Middle East for her coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“This is a woman of the highest journalistic caliber,” Foukara said. “She is intrepid. She was an amazing human being.”
Foukara wants to see better protections for journalists.
“We shall miss her, and I hope that this would mark a turning point in the…killing of journalists and the violation of press freedom in various parts of the world,” Foukara said.
Wilkins said the Club supports Al Jazeera, which has been targeted for shutdown in several countries. Club leaders on Wednesday said the network's journalists “take extraordinary risks" to report news from Gaza and occupied West Bank.
“Al Jazeera is a proper news organization in every way,” said Wilkins, a reporter with Bloomberg Government. “They are our colleagues. They do their job. They go places we sometimes cannot go. They ask hard question and sometimes they pay a terrible price for their courage. The effort to end Al Jazeera did not work. They stand stronger than ever and we at the Press Club stand with them.”
Foukara expressed appreciate for the Club’s efforts to defend press freedom.
“I say farewell to Shireen Abu Akleh here, the National Press Club in the heart of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States of America,” Foukara said. “We all hope it will remain the beacon on the hill when it comes to freedom of the press and the safety of journalists whether they are affiliated with Al Jazeera or any other news organization in America or around the world.”
