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New Delhi: After The Washington Post declared that it would make an extensive layoff, the entire world media outburst in shock. The newspaper undertook to retrench a big portion of its employees because it was under pressure. Some of the experienced journalists were fired, and two of them immediately attracted the attention of people, albeit, under completely different circumstances.
Sabrina Malhi, who was a health reporter, was one of the journalists who were laid off. Her story gained massive publicity since she was on maternity leave when the firm notified her regarding the loss of the job. When Sabrina received this news, she was at home taking care of her new born child after giving birth recently. A lot of individuals termed the situation as painful and unfair.
Sabrina got varied responses after she shared her experience on the internet. Many individuals were on her side and sympathized. According to them, it is emotionally and mentally challenging to lose a job in the times of maternity leave. Her story as told by many journalists particularly the women, had brought out the reality of job insecurity in media industry.
But a mean streak is introduced as some internet users began trolling her. Some of the remarks were racist. One user even passed her the message that she must go back to India. The remark created anger and criticisms on the Internet.
Sabrina replied very coolly and decidedly. She made it clear that she is an American born and brought up in New York. She said that her family is of the Indo-Caribbean community, not Indian. She also has noted that people can be so mean and insensitive on social media.
With the circulation of the story, a new question started to come to the mind of many readers:
Is this a second instance whereby Shashi Tharoor son has been laid off?
The answer is no.
Sabrina Malhi is not a daughter of any politician. She has no political background or family ties with public people. The reasons behind her layoff do not have a connection to influence, power, or politics. It is a professional question of a working journalist who is confronted with a staff downsizing in the company.
The misunderstanding was brought about by the fact that Ishaan Tharoor, a senior international affairs writer was also laid off as another journalist. Ishaan is a son of Indian politician and the Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. His lay-off was widely covered in India and other countries as a result of this family relationship.
Ishaan Tharoor was a long-time international politics and global affairs journalist. The firing resulted in social responses as his father commented on the action. Due to this reason, a lot of individuals began attributing all the lay off cases to political backgrounds yet this is not the case.
One should learn that there is a vast difference between Sabrina Malhi and Ishaan Tharoor cases. One is a newspaper reporter who is losing the job because of the maternity leave and web-based racism. The other one is a columnist senior, whose family background was in the headlines. The confusion does not help to mix the two.
The bigger problem with this is the crisis of world journalism. Newspaper companies globally are not doing very well because of the declining turnover in advertisements, as well as the shifting trends in readership. With increasing number of individuals using free news over the internet, the conventional newspapers are reducing expenses to keep afloat.
English (US) ·