Golden Globes member alleges he was victim of racism, abuse at Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.

Husam “Sam” Asi, a longstanding member the Hollywood International Press Assn., is suing the group over a battery of claims, together with sexual harassment, discrimination and breach of contract.

The go well with, filed in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom on Thursday, comes three months after the HFPA, the group behind the Golden Globes, put Asi on probation following allegations of sexual misconduct, prompting a third-party investigation into him.

Asi’s go well with alleges that the HFPA is “weaponizing false sexual misconduct allegations” in retaliation for “his makes an attempt to carry it accountable.”

He mentioned he was personally and professionally broken by the HFPA investigation, including that he was positioned on probation with the BBC and his newspaper and misplaced his supply of earnings.

In February the Wrap reported that three ladies alleged that Asi — who represents the UK and the Center East for the affiliation and is a Palestinian journalist for the BBC Arabic service and a columnist for Pan Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al Arabi — “abused their belief by turning skilled conditions into sexualized encounters.”

Asi referred to as the misconduct allegations in opposition to him baseless. “In fact, I deny them, I deny all of them, they’re ludicrously absurd,” he advised the Occasions in February.

In line with his lawsuit, Asi, a member of the HFPA since 2010, contends that he has “been subjected to and endured a sample of sexual harassment, hostile habits, racial epithets and discrimination, and retaliatory conduct, none of which was ever investigated or dealt with based on HFPA’s bylaws and procedures.”

HFPA spokesman James Lee mentioned he couldn’t remark as a result of he had not seen the lawsuit.

Among the many allegations outlined within the go well with, Asi claims that that on multiple event throughout information conferences, an HFPA board member, “grabbed” his “buttocks.” This identical member additionally invited him to her home to “train him methods to do ‘good intercourse.’”

Additional, Asi alleges that he was subjected to a number of offensive feedback from HFPA members, together with being known as a “terrorist.”

The go well with alleges that when Asi requested the affiliation’s former president, the late Lorenzo Soria, why he wasn’t given any jobs engaged on the Golden Globes web site or any committee positions for seven years, he was advised it was as a result of he was “an ‘indignant Arab.’”

In one other occasion, the go well with claims that an HFPA member allegedly advised Asi, “‘I hate Jews greater than you do’, falsely assuming that, due to his ethnicity, Dr. Asi hates Jewish individuals. Dr. Asi was then advised by the identical HFPA member that Jewish members have been scheming to get him expelled from HFPA, which later turned out to not be true.”

Final yr, The Occasions reported that Asi referred to as out the HFPA over its personal conduct regarding race. Throughout a gathering in 2020, following the homicide of Floyd and the next Black Lives Matter protests that erupted throughout the nation to debate hiring a range advisor, Asi advised the group that he’d labored in many various nations in many various fields, however that he’d by no means encountered as many “racist feedback” as he had within the HFPA.

“I at all times have to clarify and defend who I’m … my ethnicity and the individuals I got here from and even the faith.” He added, “I heard from different members who additionally encountered this downside.”

The group voted to not rent a range advisor at the moment. The HFPA employed a range officer final yr.

Asi’s lawsuit additional alleges that when he created an internet site for HFPA members “to extend transparency,” the board shut it down final March “to forestall leaks.”

”HFPA’s present management and President closely depend on Goeckner and Lee,” says the go well with in reference to Greg Goeckner, the HFPA’s longtime COO and lawyer, and Lee, its disaster public relations advisor. “They don’t query their selections or motivations regardless of proof of self-dealing.”

In line with the go well with, Asi is getting used as a scapegoat as a result of, “The HFPA, below hearth within the Los Angeles Occasions and different media for failing so miserably to maintain its home so as, is utilizing the false claims in opposition to Dr. Asi as a possibility to make it seem as if it takes allegations severely and is altering its tradition.”

The go well with comes because the HFPA makes an attempt to maneuver past the controversy sparked by The Occasions investigation final February that raised questions of moral and monetary lapses, and revealed that the then-87-member affiliation didn’t have any Black members.

NBC selected to not broadcast the Golden Globes this yr because the HFPA introduced a number of reform measures, together with adopting new bylaws, establishing a brand new code of conduct, increasing the group’s membership and opening an nameless hotline for complaints about members.

The group has been at odds over a proposal by interim CEO Todd Boehly that can successfully rework the nonprofit worldwide journalists’ group right into a for-profit enterprise.