A photograph from October 7 depicting Hamas terrorists with the half-naked corpse of German-Israeli Shani Louk has been awarded Team Picture Story of the Year by the world’s oldest photojournalism award competition, sparking outrage online.
The following post on X expresses something of the sentiments typical of critics of the award.
The Pictures of the Year (POY) award, run by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism includes a Team Picture Story of the Year category which recognises ‘the collaborative effort of a photography staff covering a single topic or news story’.
The first photo in the selection, taken by Ali Mahmoud, depicts the horrific moment in which 22-year-old Louk’s body was transported in the back of a truck by Hamas terrorists. Louk’s image was not blurred.
The photo is captioned: ‘Palestinian militants drive back to the Gaza Strip with the body of Shani Louk, a German-Israeli dual citizen, during their cross-border attack on Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023’.
HonestReporting, a media watchdog organisation which exposes anti-Israel media bias, posed ‘serious ethical questions’ in November 2023 about why a number of AP and Reuters Gaza-based photojournalists were so quick to arrive at the scenes of the October 7 massacre.
In February, Louk’s family sued AP and Reuters for what they alleged to be the involvement of photojournalists employed by those agencies in the atrocities of 7 October.
AP responded by saying: ‘AP had no advance knowledge of the October 7 attacks, nor have we seen any evidence — including in the lawsuit — that the freelance journalists who contributed to our coverage did. Allegations like this are reckless and create even more potential danger for journalists in the region.
‘Documenting breaking news events around the world — no matter how horrific — is our job. Without AP and other news organisations, the world would not have known what was happening on October 7.’