The Washington Post reporter who referred to a sexual assault charge against Kobe Bryant on Twitter in the hours after his death has been cleared to go back to work. The newspaper had put the reporter, Felicia Sonmez, on paid administrative leave Sunday, saying her Twitter posts “displayed poor judgment.” More than 300 of her colleagues rallied to her defense on Monday, adding their names to a letter addressed to The Post’s executive editor, Martin Baron, and its managing editor, Tracy Grant. In the petition, they argued that Ms. Sonmez had not violated the newspaper’s social media guidelines, a set of rules asking Post journalists not to share opinions online. On Tuesday, the paper issued a statement from Ms. Grant saying that, after a review, it had concluded that Ms. Sonmez “was not in clear and direct violation of our social media policy.”The statement also referred to her tweets as “ill-timed” and continued: “We consistently urge restraint, which is particularly important when there are tragic deaths. We regret having spoken publicly about a personnel matter.”

Source: New York Times January 28, 2020 23:33 UTC