Reporter files suit against Fox News

Fox News faced a fresh legal challenge Monday after Diana Falzone, a reporter at the network, accused it of discriminating against her on the basis of her gender and her fight against a chronic disease.

Falzone, who appeared regularly on Fox News and helped host several shows on the network’s website, claimed in a suit filed Monday in the New York state Supreme Court in New York City that she had been banned from further appearances after writing an op-ed column for Fox News disclosing that she had endometriosis and was likely to be infertile.

The suit claims that Falzone had approval from her supervisors to write the column, which ran with the headline “Women Should Never Suffer in Silence.”

According to the lawsuit, her supervisor, Refet Kaplan, told her shortly after the piece ran that executives at the network had banned her from appearing on the air on Fox News or its website, the suit says, adding that Falzone was not given a reason for the decision. The filing did not elaborate on why she believed the column led to her being banned other than noting that it happened three days after the article was published and that she previously had received positive performance evaluations.

“The issues raised in Diana Falzone’s lawsuit are a concern for all women,” Nancy Erika Smith, a lawyer for Falzone, said in a statement. “Fox News never banned her male counterparts who have discussed their personal health issues on air. Indeed, those men saw their careers advance.”

Falzone’s claim is the latest of many the network has faced since its former chief, Roger Ailes, was forced out last summer after being accused by at least six women of inappropriate behavior. Last month, Bill O’Reilly, the network’s most popular host, was pushed out after The New York Times revealed that five women had been paid about $13 million to settle harassment claims. Ailes and O’Reilly both deny the allegations against them.

Last week, 11 current and former employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the network accusing it of racial discrimination.

A spokeswoman for the network did not immediately reply to a request for comment.