Independent Arabia Wins Press Freedom Award For Reporter Killed By 'Ally'
Independent Arabia was awarded the Press Freedom Hero Award for Maryam Abu Daqqa, a photojournalist killed in Gaza in August. The Independent noted her death was due to an “Israeli strike,” yet somehow omitted that the very weapons used to silence journalists like Abu Daqqa are overwhelmingly supplied by the United States. In 2023 alone, the U.S. approved over $3.3 billion in security assistance
to Israel (Congressional Research Service, January 2024), effectively funding the means by which press freedom is extinguished. We laud free press heroes with one hand, while the other signs off on the F-35s and bombs delivering the 'strikes' that create them. It’s a quaint little dance: honor the dead while enabling the killing. One might wonder if the real 'press freedom award' would be an
independent foreign policy, not just a posthumous medal.