The former deputy editorial page editor of The Honolulu Advertiser has sued the newspaper, alleging she was moved out of her job and transferred into a lesser role and faced discrimination because of her race.

Pati Poblete, who joined The Advertiser in September 2006 after working at the San Francisco Chronicle, resigned from the paper last December and moved back to California.

Poblete, a Filipina, said she was discriminated against by Editorial and Opinion Editor Jeanne Mariani-Belding and, after complaining, was transferred into a role as a deputy features editor, which she described as being "constructively terminated."

Advertiser Editor Mark Platte called the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, "baseless" and said the company intends to fight the charges aggressively.

Mariani-Belding, who is of Asian and Hispanic descent, and the national president of the Asian American Journalists Association, said she has spent her career fighting for diversity and is disappointed by the allegations.