BUT IS SHE BACK?

WaPo Reverses Course: Reporter Suspended for Kobe Bryant Tweet Did Not Violate Social-Media Policy

The newspaper’s managing editor said Felicia Sonmez’s tweets about a rape allegation against Kobe Bryant was “ill-timed.”

The Washington Post said Tuesday that reporter Felicia Sonmez—who was suspended after tweeting about a rape allegation against Kobe Bryant following his death—did not violate the newspaper’s social-media policy. “After conducting an internal review, we have determined that, while we consider Felicia’s tweets ill-timed, she was not in clear and direct violation of our social media policy,” reads a statement from Post Managing Editor Tracy Grant. The statement does not say whether Sonmez can return to work. “We regret having spoken publicly about a personnel matter,” it simply says. After her initial tweet linking to The Daily Beast’s 2016 story on a credible rape allegation made against Bryant in 2003, Sonmez posted a screenshot of an emailed threat she said she’d received and told “the 10,000 people (literally) who have commented and emailed me with abuse and death threats” that the story was “written 3+ years ago and not by me.” The Post’s editorial union blasted the newspaper’s decision to suspend Sonmez.