Serena Shim (, ''Serena Ali Suhaim''; October 10, 1985 – October 19, 2014) was a Lebanese-American journalist for Iranian state-owned

Press TV Press TV (stylised as PRESSTV) is an Iranian state-owned news media organisation, owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), that broadcasts in the English and French languages. The 24-hour channel, which has headquarters in Tehra ...

."Iran state TV says death of journalist in Turkey is 'suspect'"

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

. October 21, 2014. While covering the Siege of Kobanê as a

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

, she died in a car crash in

Suruç Suruç (; ; ''Sruḡ'') is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 744 km2, and its population is 100,961 (2022). It is on a plain near the Syria–Turkey border, Syrian border southwest ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Early life

Shim was born on October 10, 1985, in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and was raised in Dearborn and

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

.Corbin, Cristina (November 7, 2014)
"Family suspects foul play in death of US journalist in Turkey"

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

.Corbin, Cristina (November 15, 2016)
"Two years after U.S.-born journalist dies in Turkey, a question lingers: How did it happen?"
Fox News. Shim's parents were Lebanese immigrants.Warikoo, Niraj (October 30, 2014)
“Journalist from Mich. dies in Turkey”
''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...

''. She graduated from Clarenceville High School in Livonia. Shim moved to

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

after her parents divorced and lived in her father's hometown of

Bourj el-Barajneh Bourj el-Barajneh () is a municipality located in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in Lebanon. The municipality lies between Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport and the town of Haret Hreik. In the June 7, 2009 parliamentary election i ...

.“From war zones to museum: The legacy of Serena Shim”

Middle East Eye ''Middle East Eye'' (MEE) is a United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world. The ownership of the organisation is undisclosed. Some sources ...

. January 13, 2017. She attended the

American University of Technology American University of Technology (AUT), is a private university established in Lebanon. It was founded in 1998 by Ghada Hinain near Byblos. The university is directed by an appointed Board of Trustees. AUT's mission is to provide non-sectaria ...

(AUT) in Lebanon.

Career

Shim started working for Press TV in 2007, while still an undergraduate at AUT. During her career, she reported from several countries including Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Ukraine and Turkey.“Defenders: A young reporter's mysterious death”

WDIV-TV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facili ...

. January 12, 2015. In 2013, she covered Turkey's

Gezi Park protests A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting ...

. On October 17, 2014, in an on-camera segment for Press TV, Shim said she was accused of being a spy by

Turkish intelligence loction 39°54'25.0"N 32°39'59.3"E The National Intelligence Organization (), also known by its Turkish language, Turkish initials MIT or MİT, or colloquially as the Organization (), is an intelligence agency of the Turkish government tasked ...

.Brown, Hayes (October 20, 2014)
"Iran's State-Run Media Claims Turkey Killed One Of Its Reporters"
''

BuzzFeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' was an American news website published by BuzzFeed beginning in 2011. It ceased posting new hard news content in May 2023. It published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was strong ...

''. Shim reported she had been threatened by Turkish authorities,Thomson, Alex (November 4, 2014)
"Serena Shim’s death: why conclusions without evidence are stupid"
''

Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...

''. saying:

I am very surprised at this accusation. I've even thought of actually approaching Turkish intelligence and, because I have nothing to hide, I've never done anything aside from my job and I'd like to make that apparent to them. However, I am a bit worried because as you know, and as the viewers know, that Turkey has been labeled by
Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
as the largest prison for journalists. So I am a bit frightened about what they might use against me. ..We were some of the first people on the ground – if not the first people – to get that story of ..militants going in through the Turkish border ..I’ve got images of them in World Food Organization trucks. It was very apparent that they were militants by their beards, by the clothes they wore, and they were going in there with NGO trucks.

In November 2014, journalist Alex Thomson questioned the evidence for her story, saying she "simply saw some dodgy-looking blokes with beards in an aid truck". At the time of Shim's death, she was covering the

Siege of Kobanî The siege of Kobanî was launched by the Islamic State (IS) on 13 September 2014, in order to capture the Kobanî Canton and its main city of Kobanî (also known as Kobanê or Ayn al-Arab) in northern Syria, in the ''de facto'' autonomous regi ...

Personal life

Shim was married to Ibrihim Shim and had two children."Trail of Violence: Journalists & Media Staff Killed in 2014"

International Federation of Journalists The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is the largest global union federation of journalists' trade unions in the world. It represents more than 600,000 media workers from 187 organisations in 146 countries. The IFJ is an associate ...

. At the time of Shim's death, her son was four years old and her daughter was two years old. Shim was the breadwinner in her family, with her husband staying home to raise their children. She was of

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

background.

Death

Shim died on October 19, 2014 in

, Turkey at the age of 29. ''

Hürriyet Daily News The ''Hürriyet Daily News'', formerly ''Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review'' and ''Turkish Daily News'', is the oldest current English-language daily in Turkey, founded in 1961. The paper was bought by the Doğan Media Group in 2001 and ...

'', ''

Today's Zaman ''Today's Zaman'' (Zaman is Turkish for 'time' or 'age') was an English-language daily newspaper based in Turkey. Established on 17 January 2007, it was the English-language edition of the Turkish daily '' Zaman.'' ''Today's Zaman'' included dom ...

'' and

Anadolu Agency Anadolu Agency (, ; abbreviated AA) is a state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. History The Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence by the order of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. As the Empire's capital � ...

reported that Shim was 30 years old. Turkish media outlets reported that Shim died after a

head-on collision A head-on collision is a traffic collision where the front ends of two vehicles such as cars, trains, ships or planes hit each other when travelling in opposite directions, as opposed to a side collision or rear-end collision. Rail trans ...

with a large cement truck, providing photographs to support their report. Shim was in a rental car, sitting in the passenger seat, driven by her 16-year-old cousin Judy Irish. Shim was returning to her hotel after an assignment in Suruç. Irish blacked out after the car's airbags deployed but she did not sustain life-threatening injuries, suffering only a broken nose. Irish was taken to Suruç State Hospital. In 2016, Irish said she did not collide with a truck head-on. Irish told Fox News:

I was driving in a three-lane, one-way highway in the fast lane. I could see the semi-truck that was behind me in the middle lane. And he was going very quickly and he sped up in front of me and cut me off, making me crash into him.

According to the truck driver, Irish's car was "traveling at a very high speed, went out of control, entered my lane and came under my truck."“Lebanese-American reporter’s camerawoman ‘sole culprit’ in car crash case”
''

''. October 24, 2014. One day after Shim's death, Press TV reported that "the identity and whereabouts of the truck driver remain unknown." On October 20, ''Hürriyet Daily News'' reported that the truck driver was arrested and his identity was not released, according to Doğan News Agency.“US-Lebanese reporter dies in Turkey, Iranian TV calls accident ‘suspicious’”
''Hürriyet Daily News''. October 20, 2014. On October 24, ''Hürriyet Daily News'' obtained an official report which said the truck driver, identified as Şükrü Salan, was not responsible for the crash. According to the report, Irish was the "sole culprit". The report said Irish "entered the junction too fast, violating a lane as well as traffic rules by turning right." After he was initially detained following the accident, Salan was released. In December 2014, ''Hürriyet Daily News'' and ''Today's Zaman'' reported that although two reports found that Salan was not at fault, the Suruç Public Prosecutor Office was seeking a jail term for Salan of two to six years on manslaughter charges, and the first hearing of the trial was scheduled for March 2015.“Driver faces up to 6 years in jail for US-Lebanese reporter’s death”
''Hürriyet Daily News''. December 25, 2014.
''Today's Zaman''. December 25, 2014. Archived fro

on February 20, 2016. Anadolu Agency reported that after an autopsy at Şanlıurfa Forensic Medicine Institution, Shim's body was sent to Beirut on October 22, 2014.“Body of TV presenter killed in car accident flown to Lebanon”

. October 22, 2014. Hundreds of people attended her funeral and Shim was buried on October 22 in Bourj el-Barajneh.

Reactions

Campaigns calling for justice circulated on social media. On October 20, 2014,

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

and the

Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The '' American Journalism ...

told ''

'' they were investigating the case. The

listed Shim as one of 17 accidental deaths in their list of journalists and media staff killed in 2014. Alex Thomson of ''

'' said a proper investigation into her death was urgent and necessary, but said the idea she was deliberately killed in a traffic collision was a "bizarre method" and "far-fetched".

Shim's family

Shim's mother, Judy Poe, said she was not contacted by the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

or the Turkish government following her daughter's death. Poe viewed her daughter's body inside a Beirut morgue before her burial and said "there was not a single mark on er. Poe told

that "I absolutely suspect foul play" and said Shim's death was "no accident". Poe said that Shim feared for her life. Poe suggested the scene was staged to look like an accident but did not elaborate on who could have been involved in her daughter's death. Poe, citing media reports in Turkey, said Irish and Shim were transported to different hospitals. Poe claimed Shim was taken to a hospital which was more than two hours further away than the hospital where Irish was taken. Shim's sister, Fatmeh Shim, said there were no pictures of Shim in the car. She said, "I think my sister was assassinated". Shim's family has also said that the car seen in the crash scene photos was not the one rented by Shim and Irish. In November 2016, Shim's family renewed their call for an investigation by the United States government.

Press TV

Hamid Reza Emadi, the news director for Press TV, said Shim's death was a tragedy for "anyone who wants to get the truth." According to Emadi, "her death is very suspect and it is likely an outcome of her critical expository reports of the adverse impact of Turkish and Saudi policies on Syrian refugees." One political analyst on Press TV said Shim had been "assassinated by the government of Turkish president

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

."Greenslade, Roy (October 20, 2014)
"Iranian broadcaster raises suspicions about death of reporter on Syrian border"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. Press TV provided no evidence to support their suspicions.

Turkey

On October 20, 2014, İzzettin Küçük, the Governor of

Şanlıurfa Urfa, officially called Şanlıurfa (), is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city was known as Edessa from Hellenistic times and into Christian times. Urfa is situated on a plain about east of the Eup ...

, dismissed Press TV's claims about Shim's death as "completely baseless". Küçük said a detailed explanation of the circumstances surrounding Shim's death would be released following an investigation. A spokesman for Turkey's embassy in the US expressed condolences for Shim's death.

United States

US representative

John Conyers John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. Conyers was the sixth-longest serving member of Congress and the lo ...

sent Shim's family a condolence letter. In November 2014, the

told Fox News it "does not conduct investigations into deaths overseas" but they "closely monitor" all investigations into overseas deaths of US citizens. In November 2016, a State Department official said "we extend our deepest condolences to her family and friends".

Recognition

Shim has been memorialised at the

Arab American National Museum The Arab American National Museum (AANM, ) is a museum in Dearborn, Michigan, highlighting the history, experiences, and contributions of Arab Americans. Established in 2005, it is the first, and largest, museum in the world devoted to Arab Americ ...

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...

.“Detroit foreign correspondent honored in Arab American National Museum”
WDIV-TV. April 10, 2017. The Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees named an award after Shim.Davis, Charles (September 30, 2019)
"Pro-Assad Lobby Group Rewards Bloggers On Both The Left And The Right"

Bellingcat Bellingcat (stylised bell¿ngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British citizen journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in Ju ...

. According to a website set up by the group, "the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism honors non-mainstream journalists who continue to tell challenging truths in difficult times." According to

, the group supports Syria's

Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...

. Recipients of the award have included

Jimmy Dore James Patrick Anthony Dore (born July 26, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, podcaster and YouTube personality. He is the host of '' The Jimmy Dore Show'', a comedic political talk show on YouTube. Dore started as a ...

, Caitlin Johnstone,

Eva Bartlett Eva Karene Bartlett (born 14 June 1977) is an American Canadian activist, commentator, and blogger who has propagated conspiracy theories in connection to the Syrian civil war, most notably the disproven allegation that the White Helmets sta ...

Ajamu Baraka Ajamu Sibeko Baraka ( ; born October 25, 1953) is an American political activist. In 2016, he was the Green Party nominee for Vice President of the United States on the ballot in 45 states and received 1,457,216 votes (1.07% of the popular vote) ...

Max Blumenthal Max Blumenthal (born December 18, 1977) is an American journalist, author, blogger, and filmmaker. He was a writer for ''The Nation'', AlterNet, ''The Daily Beast'', '' Al Akhbar'', '' Mondoweiss'', and Media Matters for America, and has contr ...

, Ben Norton,

Aaron Maté Aaron Maté ( ; born 13 March 1979) is a Canadian writer and journalist. He hosts the show ''Pushback with Aaron Maté'' on ''The Grayzone'' and, as of January 2022, he fills in as a host on the ''Useful Idiots (podcast), Useful Idiots'' podcast ...

, Kim Iversen,

Rania Khalek Rania Khalek () is an American journalist, video host, and presenter. She hosts the program Dispatches on '' BreakThrough News'' and has contributed to ''The Nation'', ''The Grayzone'', ''The Intercept'', ''Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting'', ''T ...

, Vanessa Beeley, ''

MintPress News ''MintPress News'' (''MPN'') is an American far-left news website. It was founded and edited by Mnar Adley and was launched in January 2012, and also publishes the ''MintCast'' podcast. The site covers political, economic, foreign affairs and en ...

'', Jackson Hinkle, and Venezuelanalysis.

References

External links

The Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in JournalismLaureates
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shim, Serena 1985 births 2014 deaths American women journalists American people of Lebanese descent Press TV people Civilians killed in the Syrian civil war Journalists killed while covering the Syrian civil war Journalists from Michigan American Shia Muslims Road incident deaths in Turkey Death conspiracy theories Women in the Syrian civil war