Palestinian photographer Mahmud Hams, winner of the Best Photo category at the 2024 Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Awards for war correspondents, dedicated his prize to all journalists "bravely and honestly" covering the war in Gaza. He was one of a dozen reporters honoured for their work on the conflict, which is the focus of several exhibitions at this year's event.
The prestigious annual Bayeux War Correspondents' Awards honoured dozens of reporters for their coverage of conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Haiti and Afghanistan.
British-American journalist Clarissa Ward was head of this year's international jury – made up of 40 fellow war correspondents – who handed out prizes in seven categories.
“I was so impressed by the work that we were judging. So beautiful, bold, brave and vital… I wish we could award everyone. It made me very proud to be a journalist,” Ward said after the prize ceremony on Saturday evening.
No fewer than 10 journalists were singled out for their coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where more than 42,000 people have been killed since October last year, according to data from the Palestinian territory's health ministry.
'World is watching Gaza through our lenses'
Reporting from Gaza has fallen principally to local Palestinian reporters, who risk their lives to document the devastation in increasingly precarious situations.
According to the investigative group Forbidden Stories, more than 100 journalists and media workers have been killed since Israel launched its offensive in response to the Hamas attack on 7 October last year.
Hams, a photographer for French news agency AFP, won first prize in the photo category for his harrowing series "Gaza: in the hell of war". His work also earned him the top award at this year's Visa pour l'Image photojournalism festival.
"I want to tell my colleagues in Gaza that our message has been heard: the entire world is watching Gaza through our lenses," Hams said, dedicating his prize to fellow reporters in the field.
France's top photojournalism awards go to Palestinians covering Gaza war
It is a zone that Ward knows well. With her team, she was the first Western journalist to enter Gaza – without Israeli permission or escort – in December 2023, a feat no foreign media has managed since.
She is clearly frustrated by not being able to continue documenting what she describes as a war that is “so personal for so many”.
“All conflicts are devastating. All conflicts are uniquely tragic. I think we feel the impact of what’s happening in the Middle East particularly acutely because we see the dynamics of that war playing out in our own newsrooms, in our own workplaces, in our own families,” she told RFI.
'Not here to be liked'
For Ward, while the methods of war remain more or less the same, the terrain for journalists is constantly shifting. From new business models to changing audience patterns and habits, journalists are frequently required to be a “one-man band” when it comes to producing news.
One of the biggest challenges, she says, has been adapting to the pressures of social media and the often abusive reactions from people online.
She points out that after covering the Gaza conflict intensively since last October, she has been reminded of how important it is to remain impartial, regardless of how much “crushing pressure” there is “to pick a side or to be a champion for one or the other”.
“It’s a very important reminder to me that our job as journalists is not to be liked, it’s not to tell people what they want to hear.”
Instead, she says, journalists need to remember to “take a deep breath, go through the facts, and put together the best readily available version of the truth that we can find, while being humble about the various impediments and challenges that we face”.
RFI journalist honoured
At 44, Ward is one of the event’s youngest ever jury presidents, and admitted to feeling “humbled” as well as “excited” at discovering the work of her fellow reporters.
Among the other award-winning reports from Gaza, journalist Rami Abou Jamous won the top prize in written press for his "Gaza Journal", a day-by-day account of how he fled his home as Israeli forces advanced, published in the online magazine Orient XXI.
Freelance photographer Saher Alghorra (AP/Zuma Press) won the Young Reporter trophy for a photo taken at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
International investigation reveals 'attack on press freedom' in Gaza conflict
In television, Gazan journalist Mohamed Abou Safia and John Irvine of the UK's ITV News won the top prize for their report capturing a Palestinian man shot dead despite carrying a white flag as he sought family members in Gaza.
RFI journalist Sami Boukhelifa won third prize in the radio category for his story of two children caught up in the war, from Israel and Gaza.
Other prizes went to coverage of the conflict in Ukraine, gang warfare in Haiti and the tragedy of migrant deaths in the English Channel.
The People’s Choice award went to Ukrainian photographer Kostiantyn Liberov for his series “War in Ukraine: pain, despair and hope”.
The eight different exhibitions at this year’s edition of the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Awards are open to the public for free until mid-November.
