UPDATE: Former 'Hartford Courant' Columnist Sues for Job Loss

By: HARTFORD, Conn. The Hartford Courant says a former consumer columnist mischaracterized the circumstances of his departure.

The columnist, George Gombossy, filed a lawsuit that accuses the newspaper and its owner of violating his free speech rights by forcing him out of his job this summer.

The Courant, owned by Chicago-based Tribune Co., says in a statement that Gombossy was not under any contract requiring his continued employment as the consumer-affairs reporter. It says the decision to eliminate his job was a business one.

George Gombossy's complaint is filed in Hartford Superior Court. It claims management took issue with his columns and blog entries that were critical of Courant advertisers. He says they told him the newspaper couldn't afford to lose the business.

The above report is a breaking news update. AP's original report follows.

HARTFORD, Conn. ? A former Hartford Courant consumer-affairs columnist sued the newspaper and its owner on Tuesday, accusing the companies of violating his free speech rights by forcing him out of his job.

Management took issue with columns and blog entries that were critical of Courant advertisers, saying the newspaper couldn't afford to lose the business, George Gombossy said in a complaint filed in Hartford Superior Court. He is seeking past and future economic losses, including fringe and retirement benefits, punitive damages and attorneys fees.

"Our suit, if successful, should result in less pressure on journalists to commit unethical acts on behalf of advertisers as media publishers will know that it will be at their peril," Gombossy said in a statement.

Gombossy's position was eliminated in August after he told his editors he planned to write a column about a state investigation into Sleepy's, a mattress company that advertises with the Courant.

Gombossy's attorney, Joseph D. Garrison, said this suit marks the first time a journalist has used a Connecticut law that protects free speech in the workplace to contest a firing on grounds he was trying to protect consumers and keep his newspaper "trustworthy."

The Courant, which is owned by Chicago-based Tribune Co., did not immediately respond to Gombossy's lawsuit.

Gombossy, who has since created his own consumer-affairs Web site, worked for more than 40 years at the Courant. He was chosen to write the weekly consumer watchdog column in 2007, received excellent performance reviews and his popular column was promoted widely by the newspaper, according to his lawsuit.

But Gombossy said executives began questioning his work after Tribune, in March, merged the Courant with the company's two Hartford-based television stations and appointed the stations' general manager as publisher of the newspaper.

Gombossy said in one instance Jeff Levine, the Courant's senior vice president/director of content, told him to visit the offices of an advertiser he had written about and to "be nice" to them. Gombossy refused. He said he told Levine that would be unethical and the executive would have to fire him before he'd comply with such a request.