In the wake of the New York Times’ bombshell investigation, Guardian News & Media has apologised to at least one woman for its handling of a sexual harassment complaint.
The media organisation has also hired an external consultancy firm specialising in workplace culture to reform the process of handling sexual misconduct.
It was revealed by the New York Times that seven women alleged that former columnist, Nick Cohen, had groped them or made unwanted sexual advances over nearly two decades.
The Guardian’s editor in chief, Katharine Viner, and chief executive, Anna Bateson, wrote to one of those women, Lucy Siegle, in an email on Monday morning.
The Guardian recently announced it will pay £10million in reparations because of founder's links to slavery
PAAccording to the New York Times, the email said: “We want to apologise for your experience of sexual harassment by an Observer member of staff, and for the way your complaint was handled.
“Everyone should feel safe at work and in the presence of their colleagues, and the incident you describe is absolutely unacceptable.”
In 2018, Siegle lodged a complaint against Cohen, alleging that the columnist had grabbed her bottom in the newsroom many years earlier.
Rather than act on the complaint, Siegle claimed that a senior editor defended Cohen and the newspaper failed to act.
Former columnist Nick Cohen
Twitter/Nick Cohen
In response to the revelations, Guardian News & Media has restructured their complaints handling process to prevent company managers from investigating harassment complaints themselves.
Rather than managers marking their own homework, complaints will now be processed by a third party.
A message to staff obtained by the New York Times read: “All allegations related to sexual harassment will be investigated by independent, external third parties rather than by GNM senior managers.”
Guardian News & Media has appointed consultancy firm Howlett Brown, which specialises in workplace culture, to act as an “independent point of contact until the end of September” for anyone wishing to report current or historic issues.
Following the Guardian News & Media response, Lucy Siegle said: “I feel an immense relief at getting this apology from Kath Viner and Anna Bateson.
“Obviously I could’ve been saved a huge amount of anguish had it come sooner, but it seems to me to be a pretty comprehensive admission of failure, and that has removed a huge weight from my shoulders.
“I hope it will be followed by clear culture change and apologies for other women affected.”
Although Cohen has not publicly responded to the allegations, he did note: “I have written at length about my alcoholism. I went clean seven years ago in 2016,” he said last month. “I look back on my addicted life with deep shame.”
Cohen spent two decades as a columnist for The Observer before resigning in January.
The New York Times previously reported that investigative reporter Madison Marriage obtained evidence of Cohen’s sexual misconduct but the story was smothered by editor Roula Khalaf at the Financial Times.
Speaking at the time, Siegle said: “It just amplified this sense that #MeToo is nothing but a convenient hashtag for the British media.
“The silence on its own industry is just really conspicuous.”
