United States: CFWIJ Condemns Termination Of Emily Wilder Caused By The Cancel Culture

Location: United States
Date: May 21, 2021

Former Arizona Republic writer Emily Wilder was terminated by The Associated Press following criticism regarding her being politically active. The journalist confirmed this news via a Tweet quoting the note issued by the News agency’s West News director, Peter Prengaman. The note stated that the news associate Emily is no longer with the AP and so the vacant position will be filled up as soon as possible.

This statement is updated on May 22, 2021.

Emily had worked with the Arizona Republic as a breaking news intern from June 2020 to April 2021, before joining The Associated Press’ Phoenix bureau on May 3. CFWIJ condemns this cancel culture that led to the firing from the AP News. We believe that journalists can be opinionated when there is a great humanitarian crisis involved in a political mess. We hope that AP would reconsider its policy around social media use for its employees because one can not simply stay neutral while observing a conflict that involves the loss of innocent lives.

Emily spoke to Phoenix New Times that she was terminated. Her recent social media posts angered the AP and the agency did a thorough investigation of her social media and concluded that it violated the company’s policy. The decision of her termination came after critical articles were written against the writer in the Washington Free Beacon, Fox News, and other right-wing outlets.

While speaking to SFGATE Emily shared that, “ I was simply cancelled. This is exactly the issue with rhetoric around the cancel culture. She said that to Republicans the cancel culture is usually seen as young people advocating online that people should be held accountable over accusations of racism or whatever it may be. But when it actually comes down to who has to deal with the lifelong ramifications of the selective enforcement of the cancel culture, specifically when it is about the issue of Israel and Palestine - It’s always the same side”

Emily shared her statement about her termination from the Associated Press. She mentioned that a smear campaign was launched against attempting to expose her already-public history of activism for Palestinian human rights at Stanford University. last Monday . Less than 48 hours later, the AP fired the journalist. As a victim to the asymmetrical enforcement of rules around objectivity and social media, Emily said that she will not be intimidated into silence.

The news outlets were also doing all this criticism on the complaints of Republicans at Emily Wilder's alma mater, Stanford University. The Washington Free Beacon stated in their article that Emily's position could fuel the concerns about the Associated Press’ objectivity amidst the revelations that the news outlet shared an office building with the intelligence of a military organization in Gaza. Emily was also accused of helping the Students for Justice in Palestine group at Stanford. Fox news also linked her hiring with the bombing of AP’s office building in Gaza and referred to her protests.

Several friends and colleagues came forward and registered their protest on Twitter calling out AP for its miscalculated decision. Alan MacLeod, the senior staff writer at The Mint Press, tweeted that, “The AP has fired a journalist Emily Wilder amidst a right-wing backlash after they found that she was a member of Students for Justice in Palestine. I'm sure all the cancel culture ruining the sanctity lot will be up in arms about this.”

On May 24, more than a hundred employees of the Associated Press wrote an open letter to their news organization asking for more transparency around the details of firing Emily Wilder. The employee mentioned their concern on the ouster of one of their colleagues in an undeserving manner. They also raised the concern that the decision gives employees no confidence that any of them couldn't be next, sacrificed without explanation- particularly emerging journalists_ as the employees wonder how they treat their own.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the Associated Press’ move against Emily Wilders. The journalist was merely doing her job with utmost honesty. Her social media posts can be out of line with the company’s policy but it should not have caused her such big damage. We hope that AP News will reconsider its decision rather than giving in to cancel culture.

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.

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