Octavia Nasr Fired from CNN for One Twitter Message

July 9th, 2010 by admin | Filed under News.

Octavia Nasr one of most senior CNN journalist on Middle East was Fired from CNN for One Twitter Message

In the US of America, you are free to talk anything. From sex, pornography to gay marriage. From respecting religion to insulting it. Because freedom of speech is protected by the so-called Constitution. But one topic: Jews, Israel and anything that Jews don’t like. If you do, it will cost you your dear job at least.

In a few months there are two celebrated journalists who have to eat the bitter pill: fired from their respective jobs. One is Helen Thomas for harsh words on Israel and the latest is Octavia Nasr a CNN’s senior news anchor for 25 years. Octavia’s mistake was she has used 140 characters of Twitter message to condole the demise of and praise a prominent figure in Lebanon, her birth place.

Octavia Nasr was fired as CNN’s senior Middle East editor after 20 years with the US-based news channel.

The offending tweet was sent on Sunday morning following the death in Beirut of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who was instrumental in the establishment of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Using her official CNN Twitter account Nasr wrote: “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

The tweet was immediately picked up by supporters of Israel, to which the Islamist group is bitterly opposed. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in the US released a statement demanding Nasr “apologise to all victims of Hezbollah terrorism whose loved ones don’t share her sadness over the passing of one of Hezbollah’s giants”.

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