Award-winning Al-Dahdouh is Al-Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief and has reported from the Occupied Palestinian Territory for decades

Despite numerous family members being killed by Israeli airstrikes in 2023 and 2024, he continued to report from Gaza for Al-Jazeera until he was injured by an Israeli drone strike

The ceremony will take place on Wednesday 4 June at the BFI Southbank in London and will also be livestreamed here

Award-winning journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh will be attending the Amnesty Media Awards to speak about his experience of being a journalist in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Wael, who is Gaza bureau chief for Al-Jazeera, will give his speech at the Amnesty Media Awards 2025 on Wednesday 4 June at the BFI Southbank. The Awards celebrate outstanding human rights journalism produced over the past year.

Wael has suffered devastating personal losses since the crisis in Gaza escalated in October 2023. His wife, seven-year-old daughter, 15-year-old son, and seven-month-old grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, along with 10 other relatives — including his nephew’s wife and her five children. Over 20 family members were injured, and his home was later destroyed.

Despite this, Wael continued reporting. In January 2024, he was wounded in an Israeli drone strike that killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa. Months later, his eldest son Hamza — also a journalist with Al Jazeera — was killed alongside colleague Mustafa Thurayya while covering an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza. 

His courageous work has been internationally recognised over the course of his career. In 2013 he won the Peace Through Media Award, and last year the US National Press Club awarded him the 2024 International John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award, the highest honour for press freedom to be awarded by the organisation.

Sacha Deshmukh, Chief Executive of Amnesty International UK, said:

“We are honoured to have Wael Al-Dahdouh speak at this year’s Amnesty Media Awards about the importance of journalism and a free press. The dedication he has shown to journalism in the face of danger and personal loss is both enormously brave and incredibly inspirational.

“Last year was the deadliest year on record for journalists and media workers, yet more than ever we need these brave people to report and relay what it happening in our ever more chaotic world.

“Amnesty’s Media Awards celebrate this vital work. Good journalism can educate, empower, seeks to root out corruption and gives a voice to the voiceless.

“The targeting of journalists is the first step on a long, dark road of authoritarianism, where free speech is silenced, truths are buried and rights abuses spread unchecked. Press freedom doesn’t just protect journalists — it protects all of us."

Shining a light on the brave work of journalists

Amnesty’s Media Awards recognise the vital role journalists play and the serious risks they face in highlighting human rights abuses around the world and holding power to account.

At a time when courageous journalism has never been more important, Amnesty UK believes it is more important than ever to honour the brilliant and brave work of journalists who use their voices and platforms to shine a light on injustice around the world – often while putting their own lives at risk.

This year’s awards will be hosted by actor, writer and director Jolyon Rubinstein. Finalists were picked from over 200 entries by an internal panel of experts from Amnesty International.

The shortlist represents the very best of human rights journalism coming out of the UK from the last year, across a broad range of global human rights issues from a variety of outlets. Entries are judged by a panel of prestigious external and internal experts from across the media landscape.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony taking place at the BFI Southbank on Wednesday 4 June 2025. The ceremony will be also be livestreamed here.