Former CNN reporter Saima Mohsin says she was discriminated against and unfairly dismissed. She is now suing CNN. Mohsin claims that she now has an invisible disability after she was injured during an assignment in Israel. She was in Jerusalem reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict when her cameraman ran over her foot.
The injury caused severe tissue damage and has made it difficult for the reporter to sit, stand, walk and return to work, reports The Guardian.
Mohsin posted an update about her foot on Instagram on October 26, 2022. She wrote that she could work and walk but was still in pain, adding that she often loses feeling in her left side and deals with nerve pain.
"I fell over today," she wrote. "It’s the third time in the past few weeks. I still lose feeling in my left foot. I still live in pain everyday. When I fell today because my foot just gave way I went to my neighbours crying like a child. It was the shock and the sadness I guess. The reminder of my constant invisible companion — pain."
"I took this photo when I was reporting on the floods in Pakistan. It’s how I get through a lot of days. Taped up in lidocaine pain patches. A lot of people have been saying wow it’s amazing you’ve recovered. Especially after seeing me back on the road. And yes I have — to a certain extent. It’s a miracle really," she continued. "But the neuropathic pain doesn’t just disappear. I am up most nights. And have to lie down most afternoons, the hot water bottle is glued to me and I plan my schedules very carefully. The more I do the more it hurts."
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The incident happened in 2014. Following the incident, she says she asked for different assignments that would involve less travel and for rehab support. CNN allegedly declined.
When she asked for a presenting role that would involve less time moving around and on her feet, she alleges that the network told her, “You don’t have the look we are looking for.”
She lost her job three years later when her contract was terminated by the network, reports The Guardian.
Her employment tribunal claim is the result of the network not supporting her after her injury.
"I worked hard to become an international correspondent and loved my job with CNN," she said. "I risked my life many times on assignment for CNN believing they would have my back. They did not.”
Mohsin also claims that she faced race and disability discrimination at CNN, and that there's a gender pay gap.
“I’m also taking the opportunity to highlight the racism and gender pay gap issues that I experienced," she said. "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 color, are better protected."
She also mentioned that this case is a concern for all foreign correspondents because they take risks traveling for work and putting themselves in potentially dangerous situations with the expectation that their employers will support them.
"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.
Mohsin also alleges that she was offered fewer opportunities to appear on-air compared to her white American counterparts.
She now works for Sky News on a freelance basis and also has a television program about invisible disabilities.
In 2018, she posted on Instagram, writing about how it's hard to live with an injury that people can't see.
"I kept thinking that today’s date rang a bell and then suddenly I realised four years to the day today I was injured in Jerusalem it seemed like nothing at the time — no broken bones, everyone joked that I was like Wolverine from X-Men & sent my cameraman videos on how to drive. It was a miracle in the holy city!" she wrote.
"But the pain didn’t go away… in fact over the years it got worse, I struggle to stand, I struggle to walk, sometimes even struggle in the way I sit down," she continued. "I take tablets to sleep. I learnt to do live shots standing on one leg and mask my limp very well. And yes I’ll admit it — I haven’t been able to before — but I’ve spent most of the past year in denial and depression, perhaps longer than that, of the massive lifestyle changes and career changes that have been forced upon me. Most people look at my smiling face and don’t even realise I have a foot injury."
According to The Guardian, CNN did not respond to the allegations but is denying the claim on territorial grounds.
