Editor’s note: This article discusses the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and features short video clips that some readers may find disturbing.
Palestinian journalist Zahraa Al-Akhrass is accusing her now-former employer, Global News, of firing her for “speaking up about Palestine” on social media.
In an Instagram video that has received over 30,000 likes since being uploaded on Sunday, Al-Akhrass says she thought her voice would “matter most” to the network — owned by Corus Entertainment — “but I guess I was wrong.”
Al-Akhrass says on October 17, the day Palestinians were “counting the deaths from the Baptist Hospital massacre that took the lives of over 500 people in Gaza,” she was told she was fired for “everything” she was posting on her personal social media channels.
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The video journalist had worked for Global News since 2020 and said she was fired “without a single word of sympathy or regard to the humanitarian crisis and genocide.”
Al-Akhrass says she was told to take down all her posts relating to the war and that her commentary regarding the ongoing crisis “made her look unbalanced.”
The former employee says Global told her the problem was with her “expressing my beliefs, my opposition for Israel’s genocide of my people.”
“Not a single word of sympathy from anyone,” she says in her Instagram video, claiming that everyone she spoke to at Global was “outraged for sharing images about the war.”
She says even her union representative told her she “had no right” to make the images the reality of her co-workers, even if it’s her own reality and that she has personal connections in Palestine.
“Do we matter at all?” she asks in the video. “Nobody even acknowledged my pain. I was told we should suffer in silence and not disturb others.”
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While speaking to Daily Hive, a Global News spokesperson said the network is “unable to provide comment on specific employee matters, due to confidentiality” relating to Zahraa Al-Akhrass’s firing.
“However, Global News does not condone violence or discrimination of any kind toward individuals or groups,” says the network. “Commentary by our employees expressing or amplifying violence or discrimination against any group is not condoned and is a violation of our company policies.”
The network says it respects and welcomes a “diversity of views by individuals” but “must remain fair and unbiased.”
The spokesperson says, “Our employees are expected to uphold our ethical codes, including our Journalistic Principles and Practices, which limit how personal opinions are shared publicly by journalists.”
Global also says it “follows rigorous processes to address all complaints received, and all employees are afforded the same level of support and opportunity to resolve issues of concern.”
Al-Akhrass says seeing “a genocide… before my eyes and saying nothing might be unbalanced according to some standard, but that is unethical. A policy that tells me to shut up about the killing of my own people is unethical.”
“I cannot possibly stay silent.”
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