by Anne Louise Page
This greeting draws attention to two international women journalists — one assassinated in the line of work; the other alive, well-known and active. I was reminded of the crucial significance of what they do, when reading this week of the death of at least 95 journalists and media workers operating in the Gaza Strip. These included 90 Palestinian, 2 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese nationals.
Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia (1964–2017), a Maltese writer, journalist, blogger and anti-corruption activist. She built a world-wide reputation through regular reporting of misconduct by Maltese politicians and politically exposed persons, and government corruption. She reported on links between Malta’s online gambling industry and organized crime, on Malta’s citizenship-by-investment scheme, and on payments from the government of Azerbaijan. She was assassinated by a car bomb.
Masih Alinejad, Iranian-American journalist, women’s rights campaigner and author of the memoir The Wind in My Hair. She is one of the most prominent figures challenging the Islamic Republic of Iran and was one of Time’s 2023 Women of the Year. In 2014, she launched the My Stealthy Freedom campaign against compulsory hijab, the largest civil disobedience movement in the Islamic Republic to date. She has more than 12 million social media followers. As a teenager, she was arrested and jailed for producing a student newspaper. She became a parliamentary journalist and worked for several reformist newspapers in Tehran. In 2009, she was forced to leave Iran after the crackdown on protests against the disputed presidential elections.