Lebanese photojournalist Christina Assi on early years in Lebanon, her route into photojournalism, the Israeli tank attack that changed everything, recuperation, rehabilitation, advocacy, her new relationship with her camera, and the way in which her experience has changed her perception of the kind of stories she wants to cover, and letting go of perfectionism.
Christina Assi is a Lebanese photojournalist and photo editor. After losing a leg in an Israeli tank attack in southern Lebanon in October 2023, she began campaigning for journalists' safety.
Christina was born in Lebanon. Growing up there in the 1990s, she lived through the instability of the civil war that she documented in multiple stories. In 2005 she moved to Doha, capital city of Qatar, with her family. Christina graduated from the Notre Dame University-Louaize in Lebanon with a bachelor's degree in communications and journalism. In 2018, she began to work for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Cyprus as a photo editor.
On 13 October 2023, while live reporting on a column of smoke on the Israeli-Lebanese border along with six other journalists, she was a victim of an Israeli tank shell attack in Alma al-Shaab. The attack involved two strikes and resulted in Christina losing her right leg.One of the two explosions killed her best friend, Reuters correspondent Issam Abdallah. Five more of their colleagues were wounded. All journalists were wearing bulletproof vests and helmets, clearly marked as press. Christina demands that the attack be considered a war crime.
Since then, Christina became a campaigner for journalists' safety, giving numerous interviews and propelling a rehabilitation programme for people with similar life-altering injuries. On 21 July 2024, with colleague, journalist Dylan Collins, she carried the torch in Vincennes, France, ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic games, representing the journalists who died in the line of duty.
At the end of 2024, the BBC included Assi in its list 100 Women, which recognises the most influential women in the world each year.
On episode 292, Christina discusses, among other things:
Instagram | CPJ piece (with links)
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