Cannes Film Festival honours Gaza’s Hassouna, calls for end to massacre of journalists
PICTURE: Photojournalist Fatma Hassouna was killed in northern Gaza by an Israeli airstrike on 16 April 2025 (Fatma Hassona/Instagram)
From a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) joined forces with Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi to sound the alarm yet again over the massacre of journalists in Gaza.
Since October 2023, nearly 200 media professionals in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli army.
On 23 May, RSF stood alongside Farsi, director of the documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, as well as UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese and representatives from Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières to call for an end to the massacre of journalists in Gaza.
The press conference was held at the Palestine Pavilion.
Farsi’s film, which was in the ACID selection of the Cannes Film Festival, follows the daily life of Gazan photojournalist Fatma Hassouna. ‘Fatma became my eyes by sharing her daily life,’ Farsi told RSF.
Hassouna, who had been documenting the massacre of Palestinians since the beginning of the war, was killed by the Israeli army on 16 April 2025 — just one day after learning of the film’s selection at Cannes. She had just turned 25
‘Enough bloodshed. Informing must not cost lives’ said Jonathan Dagher, Head of the RSF Middle East Desk. ‘In Gaza, nearly 200 journalists have been killed in 19 months by the Israeli army. Despite our complaints, despite our calls, the carnage continues. That is why we are here today at Cannes: to make noise, to say again and again that this massacre must stop.’
‘Fatma Hassouna could have been with us today, but she was killed by the Israeli army.
‘Gaza is sealed off, destroyed, relentlessly bombed. But thanks to these journalists and their continued reporting despite the serious risk to their lives, the world has access to a fragment of the truth about these daily crimes.
‘It is precisely for this documentation work that they are being targeted. Our collective right to reliable information is under attack. This must end. The crimes committed by the Israeli army must stop — and they must not go unpunished.’
See a video about the film and Hassouna produced by Al Jazeera, here
Since October 2023, RSF has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza. Nearly 200 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army since the start of the war in Gaza, including at least 44 slain due to their work.
RSF has also allocated over €100 000 in emergency assistance for journalism in the Palestinian enclave and established a Press Freedom Centre in Beirut to support journalists in the region affected by the war.
The NGO has also launched a petition calling for an end to the massacre of Palestinian journalists in Gaza and for the immediate opening of the enclave to the international press.
- This article was first published here
