Tonight: Press Freedom Center to host screening of 'Who Killed Shireen?'
The Press Freedom Center at the National Press Club, in collaboration with Zeteo Media, will host a screening of the documentary “Who Killed Shireen?” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 9.
Released in May, the film follows a team of journalists as they try to identify the IDF soldier who shot and killed renowned Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as she reported in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2022. The film has received critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times of Israel, and other publications.
After the film, Abderrahim Foukara of Al Jazeera’s Washington, D.C., bureau will host a panel discussion with individuals who were key to making this film, like Mehdi Hasan, the editor-in-chief and founder of Zeteo (the film’s sponsor) and Dion NIssenbaum, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist who led the charge to find Shireen’s killer. More discussants will be announced at a later date.
The film is a product of the new media organization Zeteo, which is operated by Mehdi Hasan, formerly of MSNBC. The film details the steps that journalists Dion Nissenbaum, Fatima Abdul Karim and Conor Powell took to investigate Shireen's murder. They begin by pursuing domestic leads, but after finding little success in their search for answers in the U.S., Nissenbaum and Powell travel to the occupied West Bank to interview members of Shireen’s team and Israeli officials and to visit important sites related to Shireen’s killing.
By following Nissenbaum and Powell’s work, viewers of “Who Killed Shireen?” can understand the profound challenges journalists face in finding accountability for injustices that can occur while reporting in the field. Viewers will also observe the ways in which government leaders and other powerful actors were negligent in the efforts to find justice for Shireen. The documentary, overall, demonstrates the importance of protecting and safeguarding the press in all circumstances, but especially in conflict zones, and encourages viewers to consider the dangers journalists face while choosing to chase and share the truth.
Join us at the Press Freedom Center for a timely discussion on the documentary and what it can teach us about press freedom at the moment..