Daily investigated relationship, took action.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
The suicide of an Indian-origin journalist of a Canadian daily has rattled the media industry of the country. Raveena Aulakh, a reporter of Toronto’s highest circulated daily Toronto Star committed suicide on May 28 following some personal issues.
The 42-year-old journalist had allegedly sent e-mails to her colleagues a few days before committing suicide. But the news of the suicide came out very recently.
An article published in the daily by its public editor Kathy English confirmed that Aulakh had made allegations against some employees in e-mails sent to some co-workers.
“Those emails revealed that Raveena and Jon Filson, the senior manager, who had led the Star’s tablet project in the past year, had been involved in a relationship for some time that had ended recently. Further, the clearly heartbroken reporter made allegations in those emails about an improper relationship between Filson and his boss, managing editor Jane Davenport,” wrote English.
The correspondent, however, didn’t want the daily to publish her obituary. She had sent explicit instructions to the media house before committing suicide. “Please don’t talk about me. Please don’t let anyone write about me,” she wrote.
The daily has conducted an investigation following the allegations made by the award-winning environmental correspondent and disciplinary actions were taken against the alleged employees just a couple of days before she ended her life.
Filson had to quit Toronto Star and Davenport moved to a new role outside the newsroom and within the publication with immediate effect.
“A tough investigation was conducted but we are obviously constrained from reporting any details because of the confidentiality of the people we interviewed and the circumstances under which the information was gathered,” David Holland, Torstar CEO, and the Star’s acting publisher said.
The organization has also decided to strengthen the policies of the company related to workplace relationships immediately.
Unifor Local 87-M, the union of Star’s employees, however, has demanded a transparent investigation into the matter.
“For transparency’s sake, we are calling for a third-party investigation into a newsroom tragedy,” said a memorandum sent by the union to the management.
“We want the third-party investigator’s mandate to include workplace health and safety and harassment issues, along with company policies and practices,” the union said in a bulletin to newsroom staff.