Palestinian journalist Bisan Atef Owda won the Emmy for Outstanding Hard News Feature: Short Form for her ongoing project “It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive” on Wednesday. The win comes five days after a campaign to get her nomination at the 2024 News and Documentary Emmy Awards rescinded was rejected by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The project documents Owda’s daily life in Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that has devastated the region since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 of last year. She previously won a Peabody Award for “It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive” earlier this year.
At the News & Documentary Emmys, Owda was nominated alongside media outlet AJ+. But soon after it was announced, her nomination drew outrage from Jewish nonprofit Creative Community for Peace, which accused her of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a United States-designated terrorist organization.
As evidence, CCFP cited speeches she purportedly gave at PFLP rallies, and events she hosted to honor Palestinians injured or killed in violent confrontations with Israeli soldiers. The PFLP also referred to her as a member of the Progressive Youth Union of the organization in 2018.
Five days ago, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said it wouldn’t rescind her nomination, noting that all documented ties between her and PFLP occurred “between six and nine years ago,” when Owda was still a teenager. NATAS added that it “unable to corroborate” reports of other ties, and that it wasn’t able “to date, to surface any evidence of more contemporary or active involvement by Owda with the PFLP organization.”
“The content submitted for award consideration was consistent with competition rules and NATAS policies. Accordingly, NATAS has found no grounds, to date, upon which to overturn the editorial judgment of the independent journalists who reviewed the material,” the group also said.
Owda is an activist and filmmaker best known through Instagram (4.7 million followers) and TikTok (191,500 followers), where she documents her experience during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Other winners from Wednesday’s ceremony included ABC and CNN, both with multiple wins. You can read the complete list of winners here.