The Thomas Reuters Foundation has rescinded its Kurt Schork Award from a Palestinian journalist after comments made on social media surfaced in which she likened herself to Hitler and claimed she wanted to ‘exterminate the Jews’.
On Sunday, media watchdog HonestReporting uncovered posts made by Shatha Hammad, a freelance journalist who has written for Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera, in which she signed off her Facebook comments using the nickname “Hitler”.
Comments posted to social media by Shatha Hammad
Ms Hammad, who is based in the West Bank, also referred to Palestinian terrorists who killed five Israelis as “martyrs”, denied Israel’s right to exist, and described herself as "friends" with Hitler.
Two days after Ms Hammad’s comments resurfaced, News agency Reuters announced that it had made the ‘difficult’ decision to withdraw the 2022 Kurt Schork Award for International Journalism and a £5000 reward from Ms Hammad, as well as the chance for her work to be “spotlighted through a multimedia campaign on Reuter’s social media channels.”
A post in which Shatha Hammad refers to two Palestinian terrorists who killed five Israelis in a synagogue as ‘martyrs’
Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund released a joint statement on Tuesday saying: “The Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund have today made the difficult decision to withdraw a journalism award conferred on reporter Shatha Hammad.
“The Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund stand opposed to hate speech of any description.
“We have therefore taken this unusual step in order to protect the integrity of the Kurt Schork Awards, established to recognize and celebrate the courageous and brilliant reporting of conflict, corruption and injustice from journalists around the world, who risk their lives daily to speak truth to power.”
Ms Hammad will also no longer take part in a discussion hosted by CNN pundit Christiane Amanpour at the Thomas Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference in London later this month.
HonestReporting CEO Jacki Alexander said. "Let’s be clear: this is not about denying a Palestinian journalist an award. This is about relegating unrepentant antisemites to the fringes of society and not rewarding them with international recognition. Antisemitism is on the rise globally, and Shatha Hammad’s language only serves to incite more violence against Jews."
On the phrasing of Thomas Reuters’ decision to rescind the award, a spokesperson told the JC: “As regards the word ‘difficult’, it was difficult in the sense of being an extremely grave set of circumstances.”
According to the foundation, the Kurt Schork award was named in honour of the American freelance journalist, the Memorial Fund exists to keep the world aware of the debt owed to brave journalists who work hard – often at great personal risk – to report on conflict, corruption and injustice.
