Palestinian journalist says CTV News fired her after "speaking up for Palestine"
A Palestinian journalist is accusing CTV News of firing her after “speaking up for Palestine.”
Yara Jamal worked as a production assistant and web writer at the CTV Atlantic bureau in Halifax for a little over a year before she says she was terminated with “no warning.”
The journalist shared her story on the @freepalestinehalifax Instagram account, a local organization she cofounded to advocate for Palestinian human rights.
“CTV News fired me after speaking up for Palestine, and as disappointed as I am, I’m not shocked,” she starts the video.
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Jamal told Daily Hive over the phone that her firing happened after she organized a pro-Palestine rally during her personal time. There, she was asked in an interview if Jewish people “could exist in a free Palestine.”
Jamal notes that while she worked at CTV, she never associated herself with the company online or in that interview.
“I said, ‘Yes, Jews can exist, the Zionist ideology and the state of Israel cannot,'” she told Daily Hive.
Zionism is a Jewish nationalist movement that views Judaism as both a nationality and a religion, according to a Vox explainer.
Zionists believe in the creation and support of a Jewish national state in what they call their ancestral homeland of Israel.
Palestinians generally oppose Zionism because they see it “as a species of colonialism and racism,” reported Vox.
A community of Jewish people consider themselves to be anti-Zionist as well.
After Jamal’s interview made the rounds online, an X thread was posted, accusing her of being antisemitic. The post is no longer able to be viewed because the account owner on X has limited who can see it.
She says the day after the thread was posted, her manager told her CTV News was putting her on a four-week paid leave, pending investigation.
Jamal says she was fired three hours later.
“[My manager] just said, ‘You’re fired because you broke the collective agreement.’ And then I said, ‘What did I exactly break, can you specify? And what did I violate?'” she recounted.
Jamal says her manager and a Bell Media representative were at the meeting and neither answered her question. She says the meeting lasted around four minutes.
“I knew the moment he called me, after the Twitter thread started I knew, I was like ‘Oh, I’m getting fired, for sure,'” she said.
The journalist says she had a feeling something like this would happen because she complained multiple times about racism during her time there.
“I would have producers who would come to me and tell me ‘Oh, you’re not really from Palestine. It’s Israel, you’re not Palestinian, I believe it’s called Israel, you’re mistaken,'” Jamal recalled.
She recounted another situation with a coworker who apparently said they didn’t understand her when she talked about generational trauma because they “think that is straight-up bullsh*t.”
“I have other coworkers who would tell me, ‘I don’t understand why women of colour are always so angry. It’s not my problem that my ancestors have done stuff,'” she said.
When she reported these incidents to her manager, Jamal claims they told her to “ignore it.”
Human resources apparently told her they would conduct an investigation, but she says she never heard back from them.
Jamal started working at CTV Atlantic in September 2022 and she says her complaints about racism to human resources began in October that year and continued until around July this year.
“My existence is a box to be checked,” she said. “I feel like there’s no understanding of diversity and inclusion in this newsroom at all.”
Daily Hive asked Bell Media and CTV News to respond to Jamal’s claims and to specify which “collective agreement” she violated in an email.
A Bell Media spokesperson said they couldn’t comment on specific staffing matters but “are committed to maintaining a respectful and inclusive work environment.”
Jamal isn’t the only Palestinian journalist to be reprimanded for speaking out.
In late October, Palestinian journalist Zahraa Al-Akhrass said Global News fired her for “speaking up about Palestine” on social media.
An investigation by The Breach in November found that CTV sent out a guidance forbidding the use of “Palestine” in stories.
Several journalists at the news organization told The Breach that this has created a “culture of fear” that’s “suppressing critical coverage of Israel.”
“It’s completely biased,” said Jamal. She told Daily Hive that this guidance was sent out after she was terminated.
Besides the use of the word “Palestine,” Jamal also criticized the media outlet for not using the word “genocide” and instead describing what’s happening in Gaza as a “conflict.”
“I have consistently told them that it is misleading to say this because when you say the word ‘conflict,’ it insinuates that there are two similar powers fighting each other,” she explained.
“But in reality, you’re talking about an occupied people and one of the strongest militaries in the world.”
UN experts have described the Israeli government’s bombardment as a “mass ethnic cleansing” and a “genocide.”
Daily Hive also asked CTV to respond to its own employees calling its coverage “biased.”
“Our news organization always ensures coverage is balanced, factual, accurate, and fair while also strictly adhering to both the RTDNA Canada and Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics,” replied a Bell Media spokesperson.
Ultimately, Jamal says she’s surprised that her firing happened “during the height of a genocide,” especially since she claims she was the only Palestinian and Middle Eastern reporter at CTV Atlantic.
“Freedom of speech does not exist for people like me,” Jamal concluded in her video on Instagram. “CTV has failed me as a Palestinian employee and continues to fail the Palestinian community as a whole.”
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