Birzeit University in Palestine on Thursday announced the launch of an annual award, “Shireen Abu Akleh for Media Excellence,” dedicated to Palestinian media professionals, local media reported.
The award bears the name of Al-Jazeera Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by the Israeli occupation forces with a gunshot to her head while covering the storming of the Jenin refugee camp on, Wednesday.
The award winners will be announced on May 11 of each year, on the anniversary of Abu Akleh’s martyrdom, “As a tribute to her national and media role, as she contributed to conveying the Palestinian voice to the world by covering the continuous attacks of the Israeli occupation on our people,” according to a Birzeit University statement.
The university also announced an annual scholarship in honour of Sheerin Abu Akleh and will be allocated to academically distinguished female students of the College of Media, and this comes as an “encouragement for academic and media excellence.”
The university indicated the announcement of the details of the award, the scholarship, and the terms of candidacy for them, in the near future.
The university’s statement described the relationship with Abu Akleh as special, and stated that she was one of the media trainers at the University’s Media Development Center and that she “transferred her experience to university students by teaching courses in television reports to students of media.”
Sheerin Abu Akleh previously obtained a radio diploma from the Media Development Center in Birzeit in 1997, and then a digital media diploma later in 2020.
Birzeit University took to Twitter and wrote, “@BirzeitU strongly condemns the crime of shooting & murdering in cold blood @AlJazeera renowned journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering the Israeli military raid on Jenin refugee camp. She has recently graduated from our digital media diploma & and taught courses @ Media Dep.”
