Report: WaPo Suspended Its Media Reporter After Tweet

Paul Farhi

The Washington Post suspended its media reporter Paul Farhi for five days without pay in March after he reported that the publication would take bylines and datelines off stories filed by staff in Russia, reports The Washingtonian.

 The move, Farhi reported on Twitter, would counter censorship and threats against journalists that Russian President Vladimir Putin instituted after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Some internal news: In response to Putin’s threats against reporters in Russia, the @washingtonpost will remove bylines and datelines from stories produced by our journalists in Russia. Goal is to ensure staff’s safety.

Been around a while. Never seen anything like this.

— Paul Farhi (@farhip) March 5, 2022

In a complaint filed in US District Court on Friday, the Washington Baltimore News Guild says managing editors Krissah Thompson and Tracy Grant (who has since left the publication) instituted the suspension. Thompson and Grant, the suit says, said that Farhi “jeopardized the safety of a colleague as well as the ability of The Washington Post to report in a foreign country” in what the Guild characterizes as “accurately reporting internal Post news in the course of his duties as a media reporter.”

Farhi, who has worked for the Post since 1988, regularly reports on his own workplace. He broke the news in 2013 that Jeff Bezos would buy the paper and often tweets about internal news. Nonetheless, a copy of Farhi’s suspension letter from Thompson and Grant that Washingtonian obtained claims that he violated the company’s social media policy by tweeting about the byline decision.

The Post refused to address Farhi’s suspension in arbitration as the union’s contract requires, the action says. The newspaper told a union lawyer by email in August that because the company’s contract with the Guild expired June 30, it had no obligation to address the grievance.

In a statement, the Post Guild says “All Washington Post employees have a right to contest disciplinary action by filing a grievance and presenting their case before an arbitrator. This is one of the essential protections guaranteed by our Guild contract. We’re deeply disappointed by the Post’s unwillingness to respect that right or engage fairly with the Guild on disciplinary issues, here and at the bargaining table.”

The publication and the Guild are currently renegotiating a new contract.