The Washington Post must rehire opinion columnist Karen Attiah and pay her back wages after an arbitrator ruled the newspaper lacked good cause to fire her over a social media post about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Private arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa determined in a written decision Thursday that the Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” to terminate Attiah and “violated” its labor agreement, according to the New York Times.
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| Karen Attiah |
Attiah, who was dismissed in September, said in a statement that she experienced a “wrongful termination” and hopes the decision “sends a message to journalists and media institutions everywhere that freedom of expression is always worth fighting for.” She added that she is “willing to go back” to work at the Post.
In a Bluesky post responding to public grief over Kirk’s killing, Attiah wrote that “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.”
The Post’s termination letter said Attiah had harmed “the integrity” of the newspaper and violated company policies requiring employees to use social media with civility.