Habib Battah, Assistant Professor of Digital Media & Film Receives National Press Club Award
On Wednesday, August 26th, Habib Battah, Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Film, received the 2026 National Press Club Arthur E. Rowse Award for Examining the News Media alongside collaborators Christina Cavalcanti and Annia Ciezadlo for their investigative reporting project, "Israel's Willing Propagandists: What the Media Won't Tell You When it Embeds with the Military," published by "The Public Source."
Held just steps away from the White House at the National Press Club's iconic tower, the gala awards dinner recognized Battah and his small Beirut-based team alongside the other winners, which included vast reporting crews from the world's largest news organizations such as ABC News, CBS News, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, PBS, NPR, LA Times, Wired, The Atlantic and others. A prominent Washington, DC institution, The National Press Club has been a meeting place for US presidents and global heads of state since its inception in 1908.
Following an exhaustive analysis of major Western media embedded with the Israeli military, Battah and his team found the coverage to be riddled with omissions, unverified claims, and disinformation, raising serious questions about journalistic independence and editorial integrity.
