Racial discrimination, unfair dismissal: British-Pakistani journalist Saima Mohsin sues CNN

ISLAMABAD: Cable News Network (CNN) is being sued by its former reporter for racial discrimination and unfair dismissal after she was severely injured while on assignment in Israel.

The reporter, British-Pakistani Saima Mohsin, was left disabled following an accident when she was reporting from Jerusalem on the Israel-Palestine conflict, The Guardian reported.

She has been struggling to sit, stand, walk, or return to work full time-time after the incident in 2014 — wherein her cameraman ran over her foot in a car, resulting in severe tissue damage.

Following the upsetting event, she urged the media organisation to switch her to a physically less demanding role and support rehabilitation, but CNN flat-out refused.

“She also alleges that she asked CNN if she could switch to a presenting role in order to reduce the amount of time spent travelling but was told ‘you don’t have the look we are looking for’,” The Guardian reported.

Three years later, CNN fired her.

The reporter then decided to move the employment tribunal claim, which will hear the case on Monday as CNN refused to support her following her life-changing injury.

“I worked hard to become an international correspondent and loved my job with CNN. I risked my life many times on assignment for CNN believing they would have my back. They did not,” she said.

Mohsin alleges that she faced racial and disability discrimination as well as a gender pay gap during her stint at CNN.

The former CNN reporter also alleged that the managers preferred white American correspondents over her even when she was ready to go live on the ground — giving her less on-air time.

CNN claims that Mohsin cannot bring the matter into a court in London under her contract.

The journalist has made a programme for ITV about the pain of living with invisible disabilities and also presents programmes for Sky News on a freelance basis.

“This should cause concern for all foreign correspondents who travel around the world — and take risks to do their journalism in the belief their employer will take care of them,” she said.

“I’m also taking the opportunity to highlight the racism and gender pay gap issues that I experienced. I was repeatedly let down and denied the ability to achieve my potential while I was at CNN. I am bringing my claim to take a stand and call for change to ensure women journalists, and women journalists of colour, are better protected.”