{"id":14187,"date":"2026-07-23T03:24:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14187"},"modified":"2026-07-23T03:24:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:24:50","slug":"judge-orders-pix-11-to-pay-axed-anchor-ojinika-obiekwe-over-2-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14187","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders PIX 11 to pay axed anchor Ojinika Obiekwe over $2 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2026%2F07%2F135204947.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A judge has ordered New York\u2019s PIX 11 to pay a former anchor over $2 million after a courtroom battle.<\/p>\n<p>Ojinika \u201cOji\u201d Obiekwe who worked for the Nexstar-operated company for 22 years, and claimed the station fired her in 2023 because she spoke against alleged racial discrimination in the newsroom.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/07\/20\/society\/lawsuit-filed-by-pix-11-anchor-ojinika-obiekwe-goes-to-trial\/\">a judge ruled in her favor after a week-long trial and told the broadcasting company to pay her<\/a> $1,137,000 for \u201ccompensatory damages for pain, suffering, or emotional distress\u201d and $1,280,000 in punitive damages, according to court documents obtained by Page Six.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel great! I\u2019m gratefufl to God\u2026.I thank God for leading me to my lawyers because there\u2019s no way I could\u2019ve done this without them,\u201d Obiekwe told us.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Ojinika Obiekwe was awarded over $2 million from her lawsuit against PIX 11 and Nexstar.  <span class=\"credit\">Ojinika Obiekwe\/ instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Obiekwe said she\u2019s grateful the jurors believed her.  <span class=\"credit\">Ojinika Obiekwe\/ instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThey believed in me. They believed my story. They knew I wasn\u2019t lying. They just trusted me and then guided me and here we are: Victory,\u201d she added, followed by a cacophonous chuckle that screamed \u201cvindication!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2025\/02\/19\/entertainment\/pix11-news-reporter-files-lawsuit-for-discrimination\/\">In a lawsuit she filed last year, <\/a>Obiekwe alleged that after she was promoted to entertainment anchor in 2017, she found herself \u201chaving to do the work of two or even three employees, such as the work of a Segment Producer and even that of a Copy Editor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She likened her workload to \u201cslavery\u201d and \u201cworking on a plantation.\u201d \u201cAll that\u2019s left for me to do at this point is pick cotton,\u201d she would often say at work, according to the lawsuit, which also alleged that her white male counterparts at sister stations were doing less work with more resources.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>The Emmy award-winning journalist got her start at PIX 11 in 2001.  <span class=\"credit\">Ojinika Obiekwe\/ facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Obiekwe was promoted to entertainment anchor in 2017.  <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She had claimed that she was canned for complaining.<\/p>\n<p>WPIX-TV vehemently denied her claims and fired back by accusing Obiekwe of using a \u201cbaseless lawsuit to undo the consequences of her own poor performance while working at WPIX.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After their victory, Obiekwe\u2019s attorney, Eric Abrams of the firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward &amp; Maazel LLP, described \u201cthese kinds of cases\u201d as \u201cincredibly difficult.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that we won, and the fact that we won big is a huge testament to who Oji is\u2026 The jury understood that her side of the story was the right side of the story, when PIX and Nexstar never did\u2026 No one deserves the vindication more than her,\u201d Abrams said. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Obiekwe filed a lawsuit in 2025, claiming she was wronfully terminated after speaking out against discrimination.  <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images  for GC4W Entrepreneurship Ball<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Obiekwe says her win is for everyone she\u2019s watched \u201cget wronged at PIX 11.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">Ojinika Obiekwe\/ instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Obiekwe told us she\u2019s been overwhelmed by the support she\u2019s been receiving \u2013 including from past and present PIX 11 colleagues. She added that her win is not only for her, but \u201cit\u2019s for every single person I\u2019ve watched get wronged at PIX 11,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Former PIX 11 reporter, Narmeen Choudhury, who says she quit the station after experiencing Islamophobia, shared in Obiekwe\u2019s joy on social media. \u201cThis is a big win for [Obiekwe] but can\u2019t help feel this is a collective win for so many others wronged by the mismanagement of that newsroom,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Obiekwe concluded, \u201cYou can\u2019t fire people because they\u2019re speaking up against discrimination. You can\u2019t fire people because you don\u2019t like them\u2026 I\u2019m not there to be liked. I was there to do a job\u2026 I did my job.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>A rep for PIX 11 did not comment. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A judge has ordered New York\u2019s PIX 11 to pay a former anchor over $2 million after a courtroom battle. Ojinika \u201cOji\u201d Obiekwe who worked for the Nexstar-operated company for 22 years, and claimed the station fired her in 2023 because she spoke against alleged racial discrimination in the newsroom. On Tuesday, a judge ruled&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/135204947.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}