Thursday’s discrimination suit against Marty Baron, the former executive editor of Washington Post Politics, was dismissed by a judge.
Felicia Sonmez, a journalist, filed a discrimination lawsuit last July. She claimed that she was prohibited from covering stories about sexual assault after she admitted that she had been a victim.
Washington, D.C. Judge Sonmez ruled that Sonmez had failed to comply with the law “state a plausible claim that the Post took adverse employment actions, or created a hostile work environment, because of her sex or status as a victim of sexual assault,”She also failed to make any plausible claim about “negligent infliction of emotional distress.”
The judge additionally dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning that the charges can’t be refiled. Sonmez retained her job. However, the judge did not state that she had been paid. “second-rate stories”The alleged ban.
“Nothing in the complaint suggests that the Post would, for example, not suspend a reporter who made a public statement about the personal impact of the recent murder of a relative from covering stories about violent crime,”The ruling is as follows. “Unless the newspaper’s decision is infected by a discriminatory intent against a member of a protected class, judges and juries are not free to second-guess a newspaper’s judgment about the assignment of reporters, just as they are not free to second-guess an employer’s business judgment.”
Sonmez through TwitterSundeep Hora, her lawyer, shared the following statement: “We’re disappointed in the ruling and we strongly disagree with the ruling,”They intend to appeal.
The Washington Post representative did not comment. Baron stated The New York TimesIn an email “I am grateful for a legal process that allowed the claims in this lawsuit to be evaluated objectively.”
Sonmez, who joined The Washington Post in 2018 to work as a National Political Reporter, claimed that she couldn’t write about #MeToo or cover the allegations made against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She tweeted that the ban was lifted last March after journalists rallied around her, and after Baron retired last Feb.
“I’m not planning on going anywhere. The Washington Post needs to do better. I just want to do my job,” SonmezTweetthe day before saying the ban was lifted, tagging editors Steven Ginsberg, Cameron Barr, Lori Montgomery and Peter Wallsten. Tracy Grant, the managing editor, was also named in this suit suit.
CNN reported Sonmez earlier that “survivors of trauma, including sexual assault, deserve the full support of their newsrooms”That and more “They should never have to fear that they will be punished, silenced or barred from doing their jobs because of what was done to them.”