After statements about the Middle East conflict, Arte and Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) have distanced themselves from a freelance journalist. Malcom Ohanwe, who once completed a traineeship at BR and has since worked as a freelance journalist for various public broadcasters, commented on the Middle East conflict in a posting on the X platform, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.
Ohanwe wrote thereeven as the network was flooded with images of battered hostages and triumphant terrorists, as part of a longer threads: “If the Palestinians’ tongues are systematically cut off, how are they supposed to defend themselves with words? If the Palestinians’ right to vote is suppressed, how are they supposed to defend themselves with crosses? If their movement is restricted, how are they supposed to defend themselves with demonstrations? What people expect?” He also linked to an English-language publication by Amnesty International from last year about “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.”
Philipp Peyman Engel, editor-in-chief of Jewish general, referred to Ohanwe’s statement and called on public broadcaster editors to stop working with Ohanwe. “There would have been plenty of reasons before, but when, if not now?!”
Ohanwe justified himself in several places on leads. This is a common classification.”
The BR ended the collaboration in the summer
The freelance journalist had previously frequently commented on the Middle East conflict. In a Maischberger broadcast on the topic in 2021, he explained that his maternal grandparents had come to Germany from Palestine as guest workers. He used to spend many vacations with his family in a Christian village in Palestine. He also spent time in the West Bank during his studies.
The Jewish General already practiced in 2021 Criticism of him and the public broadcasters. She wrote that Ohanwe “repeatedly makes statements on his Twitter channel that must be viewed as decidedly anti-Israel.” She also linked to this Video of the appearance at Maischberger.
At the time, Bayerischer Rundfunk apparently saw no need for action. But now it is said that we are “strongly distancing ourselves from Malcolm Ohanwe’s inhumane statements, which have nothing to do with our understanding of journalism.” The freelancer runs his Twitter account privately, the broadcaster emphasized when asked by the SZ.
The fact that they no longer want to work with Ohanwe is nothing new: “BR had already decided in the summer not to give him any further orders. These were recently limited to individual moderations of the format respect“, says a spokesman. Why? “We cannot provide detailed information about personnel matters.”
Arte explained on He was asked to remove all Arte references from his profile. Ohanwe also advertised his Arte video series there on Monday afternoon Reminded. His management left an SZ request unanswered.