A non-public arbitrator has ordered The Washington Post to rehire the opinion columnist Karen Attiah, who was fired in September over her social media posts in regards to the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. It additionally ordered the corporate to compensate her with again pay.
Sarah Miller Espinosa, the arbitrator, mentioned in a written determination Thursday that The Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” to terminate Ms. Attiah and “violated” its labor settlement, in accordance to a duplicate of the choice shared with The New York Times by Ms. Attiah’s legal professionals.
“The Washington Post failed to establish the grievant engaged in gross misconduct,” Ms. Espinosa wrote.
In an announcement, Ms. Attiah mentioned that she hoped the choice “sends a message to journalists and media institutions everywhere that freedom of expression is always worth fighting for.” She mentioned that she was “willing to go back” to her work at The Post, which she referred to as “one of the world’s most storied newspapers.”
“This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion writer, and this was wrongful termination,” she mentioned, including that she was “relieved to finally have that record set straight”
A spokeswoman for The Post mentioned that the corporate respects the arbitration course of and declined to remark additional.
The determination is the results of a yearlong combat between The Post and Ms. Attiah, who final yr accused the company of violating its labor settlement and social media coverage when it fired her for posts she mentioned had been inside her purview as an opinion columnist. A clause within the settlement permits staff to submit disputes for arbitration.
Arbitration is mostly thought of binding in most disputes, although courts have sometimes overturned choices after courtroom findings of fraud or different improprieties. The Post’s labor settlement says that arbitration is binding, although each the corporate and the worker retain their authorized rights.
The Washington Post mentioned in its termination letter that Ms. Attiah’s posts about Mr. Kirk had harmed “the integrity” of the group and violated requirements requiring staff to use social media with civility and respect.
Ms. Attiah’s remarks about Mr. Kirk’s assassination, which she posted to the social community Bluesky on Sept. 10, the day he was shot, responded to the outpouring of grief after the capturing. “Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is … not the same as violence,” Ms. Attiah wrote in one of many posts.
The Post’s opinion part has been in flux since early final yr, when Jeff Bezos, the newspaper’s proprietor, moved to reorient the part to concentrate on “personal liberties and free markets.” Some readers canceled their subscriptions and accused Mr. Bezos of making an attempt to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Lawyers for The Washington Post and Ms. Attiah made their arguments earlier than Ms. Espinosa in June throughout a listening to that included testimony from Ms. Attiah; Adam O’Neal, then the opinion editor at The Washington Post; and Wayne Connell, the corporate’s chief human sources officer. Ms. Attiah was represented by Democracy Defenders Action, a progressive nonprofit co-founded by the lawyer Norman Eisen.
In his testimony, Mr. O’Neal mentioned that he noticed Ms. Attiah’s posts the morning after Mr. Kirk died and despatched them to Mr. Connell, in accordance to a transcript of the listening to obtained by The New York Times. “Karen’s social media feed yesterday and today is beyond the pale, completely unacceptable for someone associated with Opinions,” Mr. O’Neal wrote, in accordance to the transcript.
Soon after, Mr. O’Neal and Mr. Connell met with Will Lewis, then the chief government of The Washington Post, to talk about the posts, in accordance to the transcript. They in the end determined to hearth Ms. Attiah.
During her testimony, Ms. Attiah defended her social media posts, saying that they had been a part of her work for The Post, “commenting on our discourse on political violence,” Ms. Attiah mentioned, in accordance to the transcript.
In an announcement, Mr. Eisen referred to as the choice “a landmark victory for one of our nation’s crusading journalists.”