Palestinian-American journalist suing Detroit TV station for wrongful termination
A CBS Detroit spokesman says the station “strongly disagrees with the characterization of these events” and plans to fully respond in court.
Former CBS Detroit reporter Ibrahim Samra addresses a crowd at a press conference on Monday, March 26, regarding a wrongful termination lawsuit he filed in federal court against his former employer.
A metro Detroit TV reporter is alleging that he was wrongly terminated from CBS Detroit due to discrimination in a lawsuit filed in federal court last week.
Ibrahim Samra, a Palestinian-American who frequently covered Dearborn for the station, claims he was let go over his coverage of Michigan’s Arab-American and Muslim communities following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.
His attorney, Amanda Ghannam, says it got to the point where the station wouldn’t let him cover anything in Dearborn and Hamtramck.
“They rejected his pitches for stories about local community members affected by the war, calling his coverage biased and one-sided even though it was literally his assigned job to cover those stories,” she said.
At one point, Ghannam said, “They asked him if he supports Hamas, an offensive inflammatory and blatantly racist accusation.”
Samra says his dismissal unfairly stops his ability to amplify the stories of others.
“Journalists out there deserve a voice whether they’re Palestinian, whether they’re Black voices, white voices, everyone deserves a voice,” he said.
Samra added that CBS Detroit is enforcing his non-compete contract, so he’ll have to leave the area if he wants to take another job.
In a statement to WDET, a CBS Detroit spokesman says the station “strongly disagrees with the characterization of these events” and plans to fully respond in court.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
