Sharma says that she joined Newslaundry as a young intern in 2020, but her journey with the news portal lasted only 10 months as she was forced to resign due to constant workplace harassment by her manager, Chitranshu Tewari. Sharma describes the 10 months at Newslaundry as the worst days of her career.
Sharma narrates that she used to dread meeting Tewari one-on-one or being on calls with him because he would “shout and scream” and make her feel like she wasn’t good enough. Tewari’s toxic behaviour badly affected Sharma’s confidence and self-esteem.
Since Newslaundry is now encouraging anyone associated with the organisation, including former employees, to write to them, here's my experience (again), but publicly.
— Shivani Verma (@verma_shivani12) August 12, 2026
(long thread) https://t.co/q76xT5Oj7j
According to Shivani Sharma, she was not the only one facing this kind of harassment at Newslaundry. She added that she approached Abhibanandan Sekhri, the CEO of Newslaundry, with her grievances, but things changed only temporarily.
Recalling a specific instance, Sharma narrates that she wanted to write a story, for which she got approval from Manisha (Pande), Managing Editor at Newslaundry. However, Tewari stopped her from doing the story, questioning her for not seeking his permission and approaching Pande to get the idea approved. Sharma was keen on doing the story and was willing to complete it on her off days. Eventually, Tewari did not allow her to continue with the story.
Subjected to workplace harassment and a toxic work environment, Sharma said that she decided to resign. She quit in June 2021, when Chitranshu Tewari was promoted. She said that in her resignation, she explicitly mentioned the hostile work environment she experienced at Newslaundry and its impact on her productivity, efficiency and mental health.
Sharma mentions not receiving any message or call from Sekhri after she submitted her resignation, in which she clearly stated the reasons for quitting. She added that all Sekhri did was accept her resignation and forgo the notice period at her request. She had to leave the platform without a job at hand.
Chitranshu Tewari also faced allegations during the MeToo movement
Apparently, workplace harassment is not the only allegation against Chitranshu Tewari. His name also came up during the MeToo movement by a female journalist back in 2018. Tewari, who worked in the sphere of Business Development and Public Outreach at Newslaundry at that time, was accused of making unsolicited sexual advances by the journalist.
#MeToo A journalist who wishes to remain anonymous and used to work at @newslaundry has shared her creepy experience with Chitranshu Tewari who still works at NL. Screenshots are with her consent. #timesup pic.twitter.com/7rrOpW9xxP
— Japleen Pasricha (@japna_p) October 6, 2018
According to the journalist, who used to work at Newslaundry, the incident happened when she met Chitranshu Tewari for the first time after virtually knowing him for months. Despite the journalist making it clear to him that she was not interested in any sexual advances, Tewari invited her to his place. He assured her that he did not intend to have sex and compelled her to come to his place.
However, after they reached his house, he pursued her to have sex with him. She managed to leave his place minutes later. She said that the incident happened before she joined Newslaundry. She added that Tewari manipulated her and tried to lure her with a vacancy at Newslaundry. However, he did not disclose the vacancy to her after he found out that she was seeing someone else.
Recently, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) took cognisance of allegations raised by former employees of Newslaundry concerning the organisation’s handling of workplace sexual harassment complaints and the functioning of its Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) mechanism.
