About

Pacinthe Mattar is an independent journalist, writer and TV/audio producer whose work has appeared in the Toronto Star, The Walrus, Al Jazeera, Chatelaine, Toronto Life, The New Quarterly, Buzzfeed, Nieman Reports, CBC Gem, VICE TV and more. Born in Alexandria, Egypt and raised between Canada, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, she spent a decade at CBC producing for national TV and radio programmes. She also reported for Deutsche Welle in Germany as a 2018 Arthur F. Burns Fellow through the Washington-based International Center for Journalists.  Her 2020 feature essay for The Walrus "Objectivity Is A Privilege Afforded to White Journalists” received a National Magazine Award. She was the 2022 Martin Wise Goodman Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and the 2023 Asper Fellow in Media at Western University. In September 2024, she delivered her public lecture, "Objectivity, Press Freedom and the Palestine Exception" at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication. Pacinthe was selected to take part in the Winter Writers Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2025.

Pacinthe has guest lectured at universities across North America including at Harvard, Columbia, UC Berkeley, Carleton University, UBC, the University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan, and more.

Pacinthe earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto at Mississauga before completing her Master’s degree in journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Photography by Enzo Rodriguez