Priyanka Ishwari@properpahari
12h
30 tweets
Long Thread
This has not been easy to write. My stint at Newslaundry was one of the worst times of my life. I dreaded going to an office where so many times I would be the only woman working. Heck, the office I worked out of didn't even have a woman's washroom when I was there
The men would sing songs, listen to music loudly, joke around ceaselessly with no regard to people working around them. Any effort to get them to behave professionally would earn you backhanded comments undermining your authority as a senior journalist.
Male journos gossiping about women journalists from other outlets, one of the senior most editors going around wondering on repeat how all winners of the Danish Siddiqui Journalism Award were women were not really out of character things for this office.
For me, shit hit the fan when Newslaundry's senior reporter Prateek Goyal screamed at me using the most degrading language on a call when I called him out on a work infraction (after a senior had asked me to).
He could not tolerate that a woman editor could stand up for herself and push back. He lost it and forgot he was talking to a colleague. "Tu hai kaun?", "Kabse dekh raha hun mein terko" this is how he spoke to me at the top of his voice.
This too after I had used the terms like "Aap", "Sir" when talking to him about work. I used "Sir" cause I knew the man was hot-headed and it wouldn't be easy to work with him. But the moment I asked him to stay in line, Prateek didn't think twice before humiliating me.
The entire incident had left me horrified. All of my eight-ten colleagues sitting around me could see that the call had left me shaken. It took me more than two days to not tremble from that intimidating call.
When a team senior asked Prateek to apologise to me he called me to justify ke "usko gussa kyun aaya"? When I told him that this did not sound like an apology, he said, "You think I am apologizing to you?"
The incident was one of the most mortifying experiences for me. My friends from the industry, many of whom have spent years in the newsroom, told me that they had never heard a man talk to a woman like this at the workplace.
After a day, I wrote a formal complaint to Newslaundry's seniormost editors detailing the entire incident. The response was prompt and assuring. They said such incidents were not acceptable and Newslaundry doesn't tolerate such behaviour.
The day after I received the very assuring response, two Newslaundry editors spoke to me about my complaint. "We scolded him and he feels really bad about speaking to you like that." Okay. But what action will be taken against him? Do I at least get a "Sorry"?
Turns out nothing. Instead, I got, "We know he gets defensive about his work but he is not a bad guy. In the upcoming offsite, you should sit with him, have a drink together, talk and sort this out." So no real action against Prateek and I should chill with him instead?
When I informed my team senior, who had tried to get Prateek to apologise to me but failed, about the editors' response, she told me that it wasn't surprising that no action was taken against Prateek. "He is the editors' blue-eyed boy," she had sighed.
After my first tweet about NL, a senior editor reached out to me recently saying they had taken up my complaint immediately and had held a meeting regarding what I said. I was not at this meeting so I don't know what was exactly said.
However, at least three colleagues, who were at the meeting, did tell me that Prateek's name never came up and whatever was said was too generic and said quite casually. I don't know what else was done, but I do know I did not get any apology.
No concrete action was taken against Prateek Goyal and he carried on with his work like nothing happened. To protect myself, I decided not to edit his stories at all and informed my team about the same. All this happened in March, in April I resigned.
A week out of the office, I met Newslaundry's founder and spoke to him at length about my experiences at NL. He made notes, and said he will talk to the male employees.
However, at one point, he said that women from metropolitan cities may not always like the behaviour of men from small towns and middle-class upbringing. I don't know what that meant. Either way, I am from Shimla and come from a family of farmers.
From what my former female colleagues told me, nothing really changed at Newslaundry after I left. But more and more women did start leaving the organisation, they noticed.
The editor who had reached out to me after my tweet had also informed me that Abhinandan had also reprimanded the person in question (Prateek Goyal).
What does "Abhinandan reprimanded the person" really mean when there is still no action and no apology? Also, doesn't Abhinandan reprimand anyone and everyone for anything and everything?
I once saw Abhinandan berate an intern for ten minutes while I was having lunch. In front of 3 other people, he had screamed at the intern, "You will be nothing in life." "Your generation wants everything but doesn't want to do any work," he yelled.
Now that I think about it, it wasn't unnatural for a male reporter to scream at and intimidate a woman editor the way Prateek did without any repercussions or at least an apology at a place like Newslaundry. From what I had seen and heard from colleagues, things could be worse.
A male reporter once asked that no female producer be sent with him for shooting video reports. Two male colleagues had told me the concerned department head had given into the demand. It stopped later, but no senior editor ever questioned the reporter over this outrageous ask.
So it was not really shocking to see that after former employees started speaking up about their experiences, Newslaundry called them "unsubstantiated" and "fictitious". Mails, meeting with the founder, in-person acknowledgement meant nothing to them.
They called our testimonies "vile" and "slanderous" publicly and privately they told us to talk to them. (They messaged a select few, not all, to write to them. Not sure what we should write after being called our experiences were "lies".)
It is no wonder that Prateek goes around calling me a liar and is "Proud" to be a part of Newslaundry. Not surprised that the NL team platforms accounts calling former colleagues "politically motivated" while some of us still await a simple "Sorry".
The organisation doesn't even have a single HR person even when employees, mostly women who were far lesser in number, would routinely reach out to the editors about some or the other complaint about someone's behaviour at the workplace.
Newslaundry's statements, their actions, nothing point to the organisation's sincere intent to look inwards and introspect. All their statements reek of arrogance. They are always pointing fingers at others while the effort to self-examine is never heartfelt.
A deleted tweet:
All this makes me wonder if Newslaundry would have taken down that horrible rape apology, which it platformed for more 12 years, if Tejpal was acquitted. Would they be okay with shaming a rape complainant if the court found the accused not guilty? Sad to think they would be.
Priyanka Ishwari
@properpahari
Journalist. Ex- @htTweets @newslaundry @IndianExpress| Laadli '23 awardee | Jamia alum
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