Jazmine Hughes, reporter at The New York Times, announced that she decided to resign from her position due to the way the war was covered, which she claims is biased in favor of Israel.
Last week, Hughes said that Israel is committing genocide and signed a letter stating, "We stand with the Palestinians' anti-colonial struggle for freedom, self-determination and their war against the occupation."
The letter also criticized the New York Times editorial board: "We condemn those in the industry who continue to enable apartheid and genocide."
Jake Silverstein, editor of the New York Times, responded to her resignation and said: "This was a clear violation of the Times policy regarding public protest."
"This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence. We discussed that her desire to vote for this type of position and join public demonstrations is not compatible with her being a journalist at the Times and we came to the conclusion together that she should resign," he added.
Throughout the war, in Israel and around the world, there has been criticism of the newspaper and its biased coverage, when, among other things, it claimed that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza.
The newspaper later apologized and said that "the initial reports of the Times linked the claims of Israeli responsibility to Palestinian elements, and indicated that the Israeli army was investigating the explosion. At the same time, the early versions of the coverage, and the prominence it gained in headlines, push notifications, and social media pages relied too much on claims from Hamas and did not clarify that these claims cannot be immediately verified. The report left the readers with a wrong perception of what was known at the time."
"The Times continued to update its coverage as more new information became available, reporting on the various claims of responsibility and reporting that the number of dead may be lower than initially reported. Within two hours, the headline and other texts at the top of the website reflected the extent of the explosion and the controversy regarding those responsible for the explosion."
"Given the sensitive nature of the news during an expanding conflict, and the prominent promotion it received, the editors should have been more careful in the initial presentation, and should have been more clear about what information could be verified."