The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon

Another blow for journalistic integrity is giving awards to terrorists, and terror supporters who mask themselves as journalists.

Last week, the News and Documentary Emmys Awards did not shy away from doing so.

It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive is a powerful documentation of daily life for displaced Gazans — but only from a surface level point of view.

This approximately eight-minute video on YouTube documents one activist, Bisan Owda’s, experience as a displaced person on the grounds of Al-Shifa Hospital. The biggest kicker is the moment when Owda says that she narrowly avoided death after the Israeli Air Force struck a hospital entrance.

But when one considers all the facts, a certain fabrication of truth and distortion of reality come to light. It’s biased Al Jazeera reporting, from a woman with terror ties.

If you missed the News Emmys, here’s the scoop:

Besides the terrorists honored throughout, Bisan Owda won an Emmy for ‘Outstanding Hard News Feature Story.’
But just a decade ago, she was leading PFLP rallies in Gaza.

Journalism is not a crime, but terrorism certainly is. pic.twitter.com/Qwhs1kxXfz

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 26, 2024

Bisan Owda, 27, was known for her cultural content before October 7, but she was also tied to The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as recently as 2019. The PFLP is recognized as a terror organization by the European Union and the United States, for its decades of terror attacks in Israel and across the world.

🧵 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐰𝐝𝐚 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞́

Bisan Owda, the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated queen of Gaza propaganda, is a member of the PFLP terrorist organization.

Here she is in 2015 leading a rally celebrating the PFLP’s 48th anniversary, looking very journalist-y pic.twitter.com/T7Izziqs5w

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) July 27, 2024

And according to press reports, Owda still supports the actions of the PFLP today.

Owda, in association with AJ+ (Al Jazeera Plus) won an Emmy for her piece in the short-form category for outstanding hard news feature story. There were also two other Al Jazeera wins — in Outstanding Climate, Environment & Weather Coverage, as well as Outstanding Feature Story in Spanish categories.

This is the moment when AJ+ representatives made their “thank you” statements on stage:

The #NewsEmmys Award for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form goes to It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive | Aj+ Reports (@ajplus). pic.twitter.com/lKTDR9sfys

— News & Documentary Emmys (@newsemmys) September 26, 2024

Throughout the ceremony, it was said three times that more than 100 Palestinian journalists had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

But plenty of facts were left out of this claim.

How many of these “journalists” were affiliated with terror groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad? That answer was never given, and would greatly reduce the number cited.

And this isn’t the first award granted to Owda or other Hamas and PIJ “journalists” in Gaza for their “coverage” of the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, and the subsequent war.

Owda also won two more awards for the same report, including a Peabody Award.

Other awards include the AP’s win for Picture of the Year back in March for its disturbing image of murdered Israeli Shani Louk on the back of a pickup truck packed with Hamas terrorists on October 7.

Meanwhile, as Hollywood was busy rewarding terrorists last Wednesday, Berlin’s German Television Awards was honoring Jewish actors and creators across the pond at the same time:

Photo Credit: ddp/Cornelius via Reuters.

Die Zweiflers, a miniseries about a Jewish family in Frankfurt with a delicatessen empire, won four awards. The cast of the show stars a list of both Jewish and Israeli actors.

What can we take away from all this? Two things: 1) Journalism is not a crime, but terrorism is, and 2) Maybe it’s time to shift focus away from traditional American-based awards, to other awards ceremonies as well.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.