Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda wins Emmy Award despite backlash from industry pros

The 25-year-old has won an award for her work reporting from the Gaza strip

Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda has won an Emmy Award for her AJ+ documentary, It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive.

The 25-year-old activist and filmmaker was nominated in the category of Outstanding Hard News Feature Story for the film, created with AJ+, an imprint of Al Jazeera, which was also nominated. The Peabody award-winning feature chronicles the journey of Owda as her family flee the bombardment of their home in Beit Hanoun in the Gaza strip.

John Laurence, senior executive producer at AJ+, accepted the award on Owda’s behalf as she remains trapped in the Gaza strip.

“We’d like to thank the academy for this recognition, this award is testimony to the power of one woman, armed only with an iPhone who survived almost a year of bombardment,” he began.

“Over 100 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza including several of our Al Jazeera colleagues. Our bureau in the occupied West Bank was shut down at gunpoint just last week.

“We thank you, our journalistic community for this recognition for Bisan and for the AJ+ team and we urge you to join us in saying journalism is not a crime.”

Owda gained millions of followers on social media since 7 October as she documented the destruction of “70 per cent of our infrastructure” in Gaza following Israeli military action.

However, the nomination sparked controversy when over 150 people, including Will & Grace star Debra Messing, Cruel Intentions actor Selma Blair, former Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing, head of WME Rick Rosen, billionaire Haim Saban, and entertainment manager Michael Rotenberg signed a letter asking for the journalist’s nomination to be revoked.

The 25-year-old found fame through her social media presence (AJ+/It’s Bisan From Gaza)

Organised by the Creative Community for Peace, a Jewish non-profit organisation which describes its mission as “to educate about rising antisemitism within the entertainment industry, and to galvanise support against the cultural boycott of Israel”, the group alleged that Owda has ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group which is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the US, Japan, and European Union.

However, NATAS CEO President Adam Sharp responded to the letter saying it had been “unable to corroborate these reports, nor has it been able, to date, to surface any evidence of more contemporary or active involvement by Owda with the PFLP organisation”.

In a letter addressed to Ari Ingel, the executive director of Creative Community for Peace, Sharp noted that Emmy-nominated documentaries in the past “have been controversial, giving a platform to voices that certain viewers may find objectionable or even abhorrent. But all have been in the service of the journalistic mission to capture every facet of the story.”

Israel’s campaign is currently being reviewed for a “plausible” risk of genocide by the International Court of Justice, and more than 40,000 people, including almost 17,000 children, have been killed. Israel vehemently denies any wrongdoing and insists its goal is to eradicate Hamas after 1,139 people including 815 civilians were killed on 7 October.