NPR has placed a top editor on leave after allegations emerged on Tuesday that he had sexually harassed multiple women while at The New York Times.

The move followed a report in The Washington Post that included interviews with two women who said the editor, Michael Oreskes, NPR’s senior vice president for news and its editorial director, had sexually harassed them years ago, when he was the Washington bureau chief at The New York Times.

“We take these kinds of allegations very seriously,” the NPR spokeswoman, Isabel Lara, said in a statement. “If a concern is raised, we review the matter promptly and take appropriate steps as warranted to assure a safe, comfortable and productive work environment.”

In The Post’s report, the women, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that they had faced unwanted sexual advances from Mr. Oreskes as they talked with him about job opportunities. The episodes, they said, occurred in the late 1990s.