Emmy-winner Bisan Owda joins ranks of Palestinian journalists honoured for Gaza coverage

Documentary series on humanitarian crisis lands award as global bodies increasingly laud Gaza front line reporting

Bisan Owda's series It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive was awarded at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Bisan Owda / Instagram

After picking up an Emmy on Wednesday, Bisan Atef Owda became the latest Palestinian voice to receive international recognition for her coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.

The journalist's ongoing project It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive, created with AJ+, the digital platform of Al Jazeera, documents her daily life in Gaza. It won Outstanding Hard News Feature: Short Form at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards, which followed the Creative and Primetime Emmys held earlier this month.

The Creative Community for Peace, a pro-Israel lobby group of entertainment industry leaders, signed an open letter calling for a withdrawal of Owda’s nomination. The open letter, which was signed by celebrities such as Debra Messing and Selma Blair, argued that Owda's alleged past affiliations with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist organisation in the US, warranted the rescission of her nomination.

The open letter drew backlash, with opposing viewpoints painting it as an attempt to suppress crucial and necessary journalistic perspectives from Gaza. Five days before Owda’s win, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences said it would not rescind her nomination saying it was unable to corroborate reports of Owda’s involvement in the organisation.

It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive also won a Peabody Award earlier this year. Odwa has also reported independently to her four million followers on Instagram, where she has been one of the most prominent voices from the front lines of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

To date, several Palestinian journalists including Owda have been recognised or awarded for their work in Gaza since last October.

Earlier this year, the World Press Freedom Hero Award was awarded to all Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza. The award included Palestinian journalist and the bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, whose wife, 15-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October. It also honoured Bilal Jadallah, the Palestinian journalist and former director of Press House Palestine, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to press freedom. Jadallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October.

In May, Unesco Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was awarded to all Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Nasser Abu Baker, president of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, accepted the award on behalf of his colleagues in the enclave.

Motaz Azaiza, the prominent Palestinian photojournalist, gained significant recognition for his coverage of the conflict through his social media channels. Last year, Azaiza was named Man of the Year by GQ Middle East and since then he was featured in Time's list of the 100 most influential people and was awarded the Freedom Prize in Normandy, France.

This week, the Palestinian writer and journalist Plestia Alaqad’s first book, The Eyes of Gaza, was announced after publishing house Pan Macmillan won an auction against five other publishers for the rights to publish the book.