Idris Muktar Ibrahim rose from Korogocho to become a high-flying producer at CNN.
Everything was going well for him as he produced news reports from around the world.
However, just as his star was beginning to shine brighter, he lost his job because of a tweet he made 10 years ago
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Muktar said he was watching the 2014 World Cup finals between Argentina and Germany in the company of a rowdy and excited crowd when a hashtag started trending on Twitter. Narrating his story to Nation Africa, Muktar, who supported Germany, said just like other football enthusiasts, he joined in the frenzy and Tweeted using the #TeamGermany and #TeamHitler.
“At the time I made the tweets I was just a teenager bursting under the shadow of a continent often left out in cultural warfare and playing catch up with Western inventions,” he said.
Ten years later, while working for CNN International in the United States, the tweets would cost Muktar his job and all the hard work and dedication he had put into achieving his dream career.
Muktar was reduced to a tweet and labelled an anti-semite and supporter of the terrorist organisation Hamas.
According to the young journalist, Hamas was a term he only wrote about in his pieces or while producing a television package for the international broadcaster.
Muktar offered an apology:
“Now it feels like people like me weren’t meant to be here, not on this global stage,” he said.
“In 2014, I wrote some ignorant and hurtful tweets. I regret having done so and unreservedly apologize for the pain my words caused, especially to the Jewish Community. “They were offensive and I must take responsibility. I was young, new to social media, and blurted out,” he added.
“In retrospect, a lot of the people I grew up with never lived to celebrate their 18th birthdays or live to see their dreams come true,” added Muktar.
Muktar received a degree from the University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He began working as a freelance field producer for CNN International in 2015.
According to his student biography page, he has worked closely with CNN correspondents such as Jim Acosta.
After CNN initially failed to take action, HonestReporting called on its social media followers to contact the network.
After that, CNN sent HonestReporting a message saying:
“Idris was employed as a freelancer by CNN.
We were not aware of these tweets, which were published before we began working with him.
"We have informed him that we will no longer be working with him in the future.”
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