JournalismPakistan.com
May 8, 2012

BETHLEHEM: Gaza journalist Asma al-Ghoul has won an international award for courage in journalism, the International Women’s Media Foundation said.

Al-Ghoul, 30, was awarded the 2012 IWMF prize alongside female journalists Reeyot Alemu from Ethiopia, Khadija Ismayilova from Azerbaijan and Zubeida Mustafa from Pakistan.

She has worked for Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam and her popular blog, AsmaGaza, was discontinued in February for unstated reasons.

Her reporting on the Palestinian internal division and social and political issues has earned international acclaim, receiving awards from Human Rights Watch and the Anna Lindh Mediterranean Foundation.

Al-Ghoul has been beaten by security forces at popular protests in Gaza, received death threats against her and her son, and once slept at her office out of fear for her life, the IWMF said.

The foundation added: "In 2007, she wrote an article as an open letter to her uncle - a Hamas commander - questioning methods of certain entities claiming to seek peace for Palestine. The article resulted in al-Ghoul’s uncle threatening to kill her."

IWMF co-chair Katty Kay said: "I am humbled to work in the same profession as these heroic women ... It is journalists like Reeyot, Asmaa and Khadija who set an example for all of us."

The winners will receive the awards at ceremonies in the United States in October. – Ma’an