"Vice Media is sued after employee is assaulted on assignment", 21 Apr 2018

A freelancer at the counterculture media giant Vice who was sexually assaulted while on assignment filed a lawsuit...claiming the company blamed her for the attack and pushed her out of her job...Shakir had no formal journalism training when she began freelancing as an associate producer for Viceland, but within a few months, she was...working on projects in the field...In April 2016, as Shakir's team readied to film a soccer match in Algiers, Shakir says she was sexually assaulted by a crowd of men outside the stadium...In the lawsuit...Shakir alleges her superiors at Vice World of Sports and the company’s head of human resources blamed the attack on her and ultimately forced her out of her job...NBC News was unable to reach Vice for comment on the lawsuit.  In a statement provided to NBC News before the lawsuit was filed, a Vice Media spokesperson said: "Vice has always been committed to the security of our employees while they are in the field...The assault that occurred was reprehensible, and the company covered the cost of counseling sessions.  Saher worked on a freelance basis, and the end of her work with Vice was unrelated to this incident.”...Three employees who worked with Shakir told NBC News she came back “traumatized” by the experience in Algiers.  Shakir was “shunned and discriminated against,” when she returned to the U.S., according to the lawsuit...Shakir said her bosses “stopped giving her assignments and took away various projects” that had been originally assigned to her, according to the lawsuit...Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Shakir’s reports to HR head Ashbrooke about how the assault was being handled were met with the suggestion that Shakir “should find a new job.”...