External reviewer to look at Toronto Star’s newsroom culture after suicide
TORONTO — Canada’s largest newspaper has agreed to an independent review of its newsroom culture in the aftermath of the suicide of a prominent reporter, its chairman and editor said Wednesday, but its union said the proposed scope, while a useful step, was too narrow.
The newspaper had earlier rejected a union call for an outside probe of the circumstances around the suicide of Raveena Aulakh, saying it would have been too bureaucratic.
In a memo to newsroom staff, the senior executives say a seasoned professional will facilitate the review and come up with recommendations.
“The union has publicly called for an ‘independent investigation’ of the newsroom’s ‘poisonous workplace’ where ‘ harassment’ and ‘bullying’ are rife,” Torstar Chaiman John Honderich and Star Editor Michael Cooke say in their memo.