Last winter, Financial Times investigative reporter Madison Meritz received an explosive revelation. There is evidence to suggest that the recent departure of columnist Nick Cohen from the Guardian followed a series of allegations of sexual harassment. However, this study, which Merridge hoped would spark a wider investigation of such cases in the British media, was never published. The case reveals the British media’s complex relationship with the #MeToo movement. For Lucy Siegel, who convicted Cohen of misconduct in 2018, the Financial Times article’s silence was particularly painful. As in 2018, when the Guardian’s management did not investigate her report, the entire industry now seemed to be defending its image. “This only reinforces the feeling that #MeToo is nothing more than a convenient hashtag for the British media,” Siegel said. “Their silence on the state of the industry is deafening.” Siegel says Cohen sexually harassed her in 2001. She remembers the feeling of humiliation that overwhelmed her. “I was literally the least powerful person in the entire newsroom,” he said, explaining why he never reported the incident.

“It reinforces the feeling that it’s just a convenient hashtag for the media.”

The Guardian investigated Cohen, but only after Siegel posted her story on Twitter in 2021. Even then, the story was picked up by several British media outlets. Cohen has been writing for two decades for the Observer, the Guardian’s Sunday subsidiary. He has won awards for his writing on the Brexit road, and his book What’s Left was nominated for the Orwell Prize, Britain’s highest award for political journalism. In his resignation in January, he cited health reasons. According to 10 of his former colleagues, Cohen’s reputation was well known in the paper. A former colleague reports that many female journalists tended to use a different entrance to pubs to avoid talking to him. “There’s a lot of sexism in British newspapers and unfortunately most women seem to think that sexual harassment is something they just have to put up with,” said investigative journalist Heather Brooke, who said Cohen was making inappropriate gestures. towards her. at an award ceremony in 2008. For his part, Cohen said he had “no idea” about Seagle’s allegations, wondering why she waited so long to report him. He blamed the flurry of allegations on a “campaign of his critics”. The British media world is a closed club of graduates from the best universities, which, combined with a conservative male-dominated editorial culture, results in many women’s experiences being hushed up or questioned. For example, in July 2016, the Daily Mail reported that a court had issued a restraining order against former Financial Times executive Ben Hughes for domestic violence. A few hours later, the article was removed without explanation. In 2019, The Sun reported that former Guardian newspaper executive David Pemzel harassed a former newspaper employee via text messages. Following Pemsel’s protest, the newspaper demanded a public apology and removed the relevant article. Thus, the Cohen case continues the tradition of covering up cases of sexual harassment in the British media.