Gaza documentation and investigations honoured in New York ceremony
Airwars’ documentation and investigations into civilian harm in Gaza won a prestigious Overseas Press Club of America award on Thursday.
The Kim Wall Award recognised the “best story or series of stories in any medium on international affairs using creative and dynamic digital storytelling techniques.”
In a statement the judges, chaired by Mary Rajkumar, Pulitzer-winning journalist at The Associated Press, said: “Airwars stood out for the innovation they brought to the field of digital storytelling on international affairs, homing in on the most urgent and competitive storyline of the year with tangible impact.”
“The visually stunning interactive breaks down an overwhelming amount of data into a digestible presentation.”
Airwars’ Rowena De Silva and Joe Dyke accept the OPC award in New York
The award recognised both the incident-by-incident documentation of civilian harm Airwars has conducted in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, as well as the powerful journalism produced by the investigations team.
In particular, the short film The Killings They Tweeted – produced in conjunction with Sky News – used open source investigative techniques to match black and white strike footage released by the Israeli military to real civilian harm incidents. The 20-minute film is available on Youtube:
Airwars was the smallest organisation to win an award and one of only two non-US based organisations, the other being Al Jazeera. Other winners included The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
The Killings They Tweeted is also in the four-entry shortlist for the Broadcast Investigation category at the 2025 Amnesty Media Awards, which is due to take place on June 4, 2025. The short film was also nominated at the Open Source Film Awards.
The acceptance speech by the Airwars investigation team is available below: