Al Jazeera fights $1.75mn compensation claim

MAKING NEWS: Qatar-based Al Jazeera is fighting a compensation claim made by a female journalist from the UK. (Getty Images)

A Qatar-based TV news channel is fighting a $1.75 million compensation battle against a female journalist who is claiming race, sex and religious discrimination.

When Jo Burgin accepted a job at Al Jazeera, she was the most senior woman to work at the 24-hour English language channel in Doha.

It was launched in November 2006 with a host of big names including Sir David Frost and Rageh Omar lured from the BBC.

But Burgin, 49, told an employment tribunal in London that her Arab bosses had 'publicly humiliated' her and eventually sacked her for being a 'white, Christian, British female', according to media reports in the UK.

Launching a compensation claim for race, sex and religious discrimination, Burgin said the station's deputy managing director Ibrahim Helal "harboured anti-Western sentiment", could not relate to women and rolled his eyes whenever she spoke.

Previously an executive at ITN and Sky News, she told Central London Employment Tribunal that he shouted her down in meetings and ignored her in favour of her male deputies.

In April 2005, Miss Burgin was among scores of British journalists who made the move to Doha, Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based.

Burgin denied claims by Al Jazeera that her work was not up to scratch and said she had maintained excellent relationships with all her colleagues in the news department.

The hearing continues.

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