Canada: Journalist Nahreman Issa Targeted With Racist Hate Comments On Social Media. CFWIJ Condemns The Incident.

Location: Canada, Edmonton
Date: July 213, 2021

A Facebook user who goes by the name Jameson Balkie messaged journalist Nahreman Issa through the platform, attacking her expertise and professionalism by targeting her race. The vile message also attempted to body-shame the journalist. In response, Nahreman claimed that she is not opposed to taking constructive criticism from her readers, however, any critique that serves to espouse racist and fatphobic worldviews should not be tolerated.

The incident took place on July 8, when Balkie connected with Nahreman through the private message feature on Facebook. The message concerned a grammatical error that Nahreman committed, however, was completely out of line tonally. Journalists and reporters regularly make grammatical errors in their work, which is why articles and reports go through multiple editorial checks. Such mistakes are common and occur regardless of race and ethnicity. This does not give readers the license to attack a journalist’s professional ability based on the colour of their skin. Nahreman made the message she received public through a screenshot she shared on her Twitter account.

So this guy thinks I can’t do my job properly because I’m clearly not white. Let’s face it, we can read between the lines here.

He also thinks I was hired to “satisfy diversity quotas or weight ones”.

I wish I could say I laughed this off but I didn’t. pic.twitter.com/G16g7dRINV

— Nahreman Issa (@NahremanIssaCTV) July 8, 2021

In the tweet following this, Nahreman explains that she is usually open to constructive criticism about her work, however, justifiably her appearance cannot become part of that discussion. In fact, she has had previous experiences with her audience reaching out to her with constructive feedback and she has gone on to incorporate it in her work. However, messages like these are vile and cross a line.

My body and my ethnicity is not up for discussion.

I can take constructive criticism when it’s not veiled in xenophobia and fatphobia.

I’ve had viewers reach out to suggest certain things in a constructive way. And I appreciate that.

This is not the way you do it.

— Nahreman Issa (@NahremanIssaCTV) July 8, 2021

The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the actions of Jameson Balkie. We stand in solidarity with Nahreman and would like to remind our readers that any tweet attacking the race, gender, sexual orientation, physical appearance or other such personal affiliations are considered hate speech and abuse. They are clearly ill-intentioned and have no place in civil discourse. Jameson Balkie should immediately issue an apology to Nahreman Issa and retract his statement.

The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.

If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.