Journalist Pacinthe Mattar delivers public lecture on objective journalism in Canadian Media
Students gathered in Kaneff to hear the internationally renowned journalist’s insights into working in the media field.

On October 15, renowned Egyptian Muslim journalist, producer, writer, and University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) alumna Pacinthe Mattar delivered a public lecture on representation and objectivity in Canadian media and the power of independent journalism. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology (ICCIT)’s Anti-Racism and Diversity Committee, along with Professor Nicole Cohen’s class—CCT395 (Journalism and Democracy).

From 1 to 2 p.m., over 30 staff and students gathered in room KN 130 of the Kaneff Centre to listen to Mattar’s talk. The event also featured complimentary coffee and cookies.

As part of her lecture, Mattar went over the background of her personal essay, “Objectivity Is a Privilege Afforded to White Journalists,” which was published by The Walrus in 2020. In that essay, she discussed multiple instances where she was silenced and questioned for challenging the notion of objectivity while working in the Canadian press. The essay received a National Magazine Award and the Canadian Online Publishing Award in 2021.

Mattar invited participants to question the notion of objectivity and how it applies to media coverage of racialized communities, specifically Black, Indigenous, and especially Palestinian peoples. 

Corporate media

Mattar previously worked at CBC for ten years, where she wrote numerous stories about immigration, race, marginalization, and pop culture. She mostly worked on The Current, a CBC radio program that produced town halls on missing and murdered Indigenous women, racism, and other prominent issues.

Mattar experienced her first gap between the reality of journalism and the promise of journalism while covering the 2015 uprising against police brutality in Baltimore, US. Mattar pitched a story on Freddie Gray, a victim of a “rough ride” in a police car, which led to a severe spinal cord injury, a coma, and his passing one week after his arrest. 

In the final stages of publishing her story, her superior commented that the story wouldn’t be aired due to their doubts about the reliability of the interviewees who spoke out against the police brutality. Mattar was left to defend her work, lectured on transparency and accuracy and had to prove herself as a journalist. Ultimately, her efforts fell short until a senior colleague who happened to be an older white male intervened. That persuasion from her colleague finally led to the story being published. 

There is an ongoing difference in the treatment and trust towards marginalized communities in the news. 

Mattar went on to talk about an instance when she tried to cover medical racism against Indigenous peoples.

Speaking at a CBC town hall in Vancouver in 2018, Diane Lingren, a provincial chair for the Indigenous leadership at the British Columbia Nurses Union, described the differences she saw in how Indigenous versus non-Indigenous people are treated in hospitals. Lingren explained that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) tied Indigenous patients, cuffing their wrists to their ankles, and explained to her that it was for their own protection and safety. 

When it came time to air this segment, a superior again told Mattar that the story couldn’t be published because the RCMP had made statements that contradicted Lingren’s claims. Nevertheless, after more back-and-forth, the CBC eventually aired the story. 

Mattar went on to say that with racialized communities like Black and Indigenous people, there are often debates, disagreements and doubts on the reliability of a source that come from members of the communities, yet the stories are still aired.

In 2017, Mattar interviewed American-Kuwaiti Palestinian journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin about a protest and the treatment of journalists in Jerusalem, located in the West Bank of Palestine. Worshippers prayed outside instead of inside the al-Aqsa mosque as an act of defiance over a new installation of metal detectors at the entrance of the mosque. The tension between the Palestinians praying and the Israeli Defence Force led to the protest Shihab-Eldin was covering.

Once again, Mattar completed a story, went through all the stages of approval, meetings and interviewing, only to be shut down again by producers. This time, Mattar was given no explanation for the decision, and the story never aired. 

How to question objectivity 

Mattar went on to quote prominent figures in the world of journalism she looks up to, such as Tom Rosenstiel, who posted on X, “Objectivity is not neutrality or disinterestedness. Those notions invite unconscious bias–the very problem the objective method or process was meant to combat.” 

She spoke about Nikole Hannah-Jones, who said, “We have to take a certain stance on things, especially if you’re talking about democracy.” Mattar echoed their arguments, asserting that objectivity doesn’t require adhering to a notion of balance, especially when reporting on unbalanced political systems.

The future for journalism 

In an interview with The Medium, a student attendee who chose to remain anonymous said the lecture led them to “think over the implications of ownership, editing and thinking about how things get published. It was very informative.” The student was happy to see Mattar break the glass ceiling and create change. “A lot of people stay in those positions and are just okay with it. I was really inspired by her instinct to move into independent journalism.”

The lecture led them to question big media and the role of editing and producers: “Should we even be really focusing on that, or should we be focusing on independent journalists who are saying it how it is?”

Professor Cohen, who co-hosted the event with CCT395, told The Medium via email that the importance of the event is to help students understand journalism’s “important role in democracy while studying its limitations.” She added that Mattar’s lecture about her experience working in Canadian media and her career as a journalist “is so vital”.

After the event, Mattar expressed, “independent journalism is the future, and the student press has always had a moral courage that I think the rest of mainstream organizations lack.”

She recalled a vigil for Palestinian journalists that she co-hosted at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) in 2024. Student publications at TMU were the only news outlets that covered the event. “It was really nice to have the support of the student press—we invited every single news organization in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), nobody covered it but the student press,” Mattar shared. “This generation, I think, has a moral clarity and a courage that we need more of.”

Today, Mattar continues her independent journalism and activism for marginalized communities. She is working on publishing a book and currently has her essay “Covering Palestine Shouldn’t Cost Anyone Their Job. Or Their Life,” in a newly published book titled When Genocide Wasn’t News, co-authored by independent journalists and activists.