UK is dangerous place for LGBTQ+ journalists amid increasing abuse, study finds

New research has revealed that a majority of LGBTQ+ journalists feel it is becoming more dangerous to be ‘out’ in the current media landscape, with many facing vile harassment and abuse for just doing their jobs. 

Research conducted by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity (LHC) at Birmingham City University has charted the “intermittent and consistent abuse and harassment” faced by LGBTQ+ journalists in the UK. 

The study, which saw 40 LGBTQ+ journalists surveyed and six one-to-one interviews take place, found 78 per cent of respondents either agree or strongly agree that it is becoming more dangerous to be an LGBTQ+ journalist.

The research also revealed more than three quarters of respondents believe media publishers are not doing enough to protect LGBTQ+ journalists from harassment and abuse. 

Whilst 82 per cent of those surveyed said they experienced abuse or harassment as an LGBTQ+ journalist, 62 per cent said they never filed a complaint after suffering the abuse due to a perceived lack of support.  

Participants reported a wide range of different forms of abuse and harassment whilst carrying out their work in journalism, including death threats, Twitter trolling and in-person abuse in supermarkets and from street preachers. 

One respondent said they have faced “attacks on my work, being called a ‘groomer’, being told that my work is ‘predatory’ or I am a predator, transphobia about people I interview” and “horrific comments about my personal appearance/physical characteristics/my identity as an LGBTQ+ person”.

Another told the report’s author that being a member of the LGBTQ+ community has resulted in sources refusing to speak with them and has called their journalistic integrity into question. 

“Being a journalist who covers LGBTQ+ matters also propels personal traits into the public domain in a way that other news briefs do not, increasing the risk of vulnerability and exposure,” they said. 

Anti-LGBTQ+ abuse has the potential to create a ‘chilling effect’

Speaking with PinkNews, Finbarr Toesland – the author of the report – said he was surprised by the “myriad of ways” the abuse impacts journalism as a whole and the individual journalists. 

He noted one of the “quite concerning” key findings was that people would choose not to cover LGBTQ+ stories because of worries over backlash and abuse they could face. 

“If left unchecked, hate speech and abuse against LGBTQ+ journalists has the potential to create a chilling effect where journalists are either uncomfortable or afraid to report on vital issues of importance to LGBTQ+ people,” he stated in the report. 

Another key area of examination was what publishers are doing to support and protect LGBTQ+ journalists from abuse. 

One issue Toesland found was that many older journalists and members of senior staff hold the opinion abuse is part of being a journalist and those suffering it should “get a thick skin”. 

“I’ve heard this around the office, and other journalists have said it to me, and it’s always a joke ‘you’ve succeeded, and you’ve reached a milestone as a journalist when you receive a death threat’,” one interviewee said in the report. 

“For publishers, what there really needs to be is a defined programme that addresses a lot of the issues which LGBTQ+ journalists have around abuse and harassment. 

“On a practical basis, there really needs to be some mechanism to report abuse that’s happening.” 

He added that many people he spoke with, who used to be in higher level roles in journalism, said there is a “lack of commitment by executives to actually embed processes” which protect LGBTQ+ journalists. 

“Obviously, no publisher or executive at these organisations is going say, ‘Oh, we don’t think LGBTQ+ journalists need protection from abuse and harassment,'” Toesland added, “But on a practical basis, there’s no real support network for a lot of LGBTQ+ journalists.”