Al Jazeera moves Shireen’s case file to ICC

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Al Jazeera Media Network has assigned its legal team to refer Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder case file to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The Network said, in a statement issued yesterday, that it has formed an international legal coalition that consists of its legal team along with international legal experts. The coalition is preparing a complete case dossier to be submitted to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. In addition to the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli Occupation Forces outside Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on May 11, 2022, the case file will also include the Israeli bombing and total destruction of Al Jazeera’s office in Gaza in May 2021, as well as the continuous incitements and attacks on its journalists operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. According to Article 8 of the Charter of the International Criminal Court, targeting war correspondents, or journalists working in war zones or occupied territories by killing or physically assaulting them, is a war crime. “Al Jazeera Media Network condemns the killing of our colleague Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked with the Network for 25 years as a professional journalist covering the ongoing conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Network vows to follow every path to achieve justice for Shireen, and ensure those responsible for her killing are brought to justice and held accountable in all international justice and legal platforms and courts,” the statement added. Al Jazeera English wins journalism award Al Jazeera English’s US-based documentary strand Fault Lines has won the prestigious Robert F Kennedy Journalism award for its 2021 episode Unrelinquished: When Abusers Keep Their Guns. The award, given by the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights organisation, was announced on May 24 in an online ceremony, a statement from Al Jazeera said yesterday. Other winners for this year’s awards include PBS, USA Today, the New York Times and the Miami Herald. The documentary, which was produced in partnership with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, won in the Domestic Broadcast category. In an exclusive investigation,  Fault Lines and Reveal expose how US gun laws have failed to prevent domestic abusers from killing their partners. The film follows reporter Jennifer Gollan as she investigates gaps in the system that allow domestic abusers to keep their guns – with deadly consequences. Along with Gollan, the team behind the film includes producer Amina Waheed, editor Adrienne Haspel, director of photography Joel Van Haren, associate producer Darya Marchenkova, and executive producer Laila al-Arian. “We are so grateful to the Robert F Kennedy Journalism Awards for this honour, as well as to our partners at Reveal and to the families who spoke with us despite their tremendous losses,” said al-Arian. “I hope this film, and the recognition it’s received, will spur action that prevents countless tragic deaths at the hands of armed domestic abusers,” Waheed said. Al Jazeera English had previously won Robert F Kennedy Journalism awards for its coverage of the ‘Arab Spring’ protests in 2011 and the Fault Lines’ film on human rights issues in the clothing supply chain in Bangladesh. Founded by the reporters who covered Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, the Robert F Kennedy Journalism Awards honour outstanding reporting on issues that reflect Robert Kennedy’s concerns, including human rights, social justice, and the power of individual action in the United States and around the world. Al Jazeera English is a highly decorated news and current affairs channel – in recent years it has won three Royal Television Society awards, a Peabody and several Emmy awards, including two for Fault Lines’ episodes, the statement added.