The Kerala Media Academy announced that its Mediaperson of the Year award will be given to Wael Al-Dahdouh, Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera news channel.

The award comprises a citation, sculpture and cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. According to The Hindu, he was selected on the basis of “recommendations by an association of investigative journalists and a committee of editors of media magazines”.

The academy’s chairman RS Babu told South First the academy was “honouring itself by conferring the award on Al-Dahdouh”, who was informed about the award over the phone. He described the journalist as a “symbol of resilience despite huge personal losses and adversities, which makes fair reporting truly impossible”.

In October, Al-Dahdouh’s wife, 15-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter were killed in a “targeted” Israeli airstrike in Gaza. In December, he was injured in an Israeli attack that killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa. In January, his eldest son, a journalist in his 20s, was also killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 25,000, according to its health ministry. Last week, the International Court of Justice delivered its order after South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel. On one hand, the court found that the allegations of genocide were plausible and ordered provisional measures. However, it did not direct a halt to military operations. Read about it here.

This report was published with AI assistance.

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