Award-winning New York Times Magazine staff writer Jazmine Hughes resigned from the publication on Friday after she violated newsroom policies by signing a letter that voiced support for Palestinians and Israel’s siege of Gaza. Was opposed.
Jake Silverstein, editor of The New York Times Magazine, announced Ms. Hughes’s resignation in an email to staff members on Friday evening.
Mr. Silverstein wrote, “Although I respect that he has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest.” “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to freedom.”
Mr. Silverstein said Ms. Hughes had violated the policy earlier this year by signing another public letter. The letter, which was also signed by other contributors to The Times, protested the newspaper’s reporting on transgender issues.
Mr. Silverstein wrote, “He and I discussed that his willingness to stake out such a public position and engage in public protests is not compatible with being a journalist at The Times, and we both came to the conclusion that He should resign.” In your note on Friday.
Ms Hughes declined to comment. A Times spokesman had no further comment.
Ms Hughes joined The Times in 2015 and worked as an editor and writer for the magazine. In 2020, she won the American Society of Magazine Editors Next award for journalists under 30. This year, she won the National Magazine Award for Profile Writing for articles on Viola Davis and Whoopi Goldberg.
The petition Ms Hughes signed about the Israel-Hamas war was published online last week by a group called Writers Against the War on Gaza. The group, which describes itself as “an ad hoc coalition committed to the horizon of solidarity and liberation for the Palestinian people”, called it Israel’s “eliminationist attack” on Palestinians as well as journalists reporting on the war. Described as death. It was signed by hundreds of people, including other well-known journalists and writers.
“We stand firmly with the people of Gaza,” the letter said.
On Friday, Jamie Lauren Keels, a contributing writer to the magazine who also signed the letter, said in a post on X that she would no longer contribute to the publication. “It’s my personal decision as to what kind of work I want to do,” he said.
