Sexism in the Media: what we heard at the press justice project’s fifth conference.
On 13 October we gathered at Outer Temple Chambers for the Press Justice Project’s fifth conference, Sexism in the Media: Impact, Cases and Responses. Over three panels, people from law, journalism, politics and campaigning talked about why women are still silenced, misrepresented and pushed out of public life, and what needs to change.
Our chair, Stephen Kinsella, opened the day wearing a badge in memory of his friend Jo Cox, who was murdered ten years ago. What gets written about women, he said, is never “just hurty words”. Those words spill into real life, with real consequences. It set the tone for everything that followed.
Panel one: when the law is used to silence
Media lawyer Rachael Somerset chaired our first panel with Zelda Perkins CBE, founder of Can’t Buy My Silence, and barristers Hayley Webster (Matrix Chambers) and Charlotte Tosti (Outer Temple Chambers). Zelda’s CBE had been announced just days earlier, so the room had plenty to celebrate.
Zelda took us back to 1998, after she reported Harvey Weinstein’s assault on her assistant. The two of them, both in their twenties, were kept apart and questioned late into the night, sometimes until 5am, in a windowless room with no pen or paper and nothing to eat or drink. She calls it “legal waterboarding”. Her advice to anyone signing a settlement: most NDAs are never actually called NDAs, and “standard” isn’t a legal term. For her, it was never really about one man. It was about a system that lets powerful people get away with it.
Charlotte explained where the law stands now. A confidentiality clause can’t stop you whistleblowing (including about sexual harassment, from April 2026), reporting a crime, or discussing pay for equal pay purposes. Universities in England can no longer use NDAs to silence staff over sexual misconduct or bullying, and the government is still working out which NDAs will be allowed under the Employment Rights Act. She also pointed to a gap that matters for the media: freelancers have to prove worker status before they can bring many claims.
Hayley asked whether defamation proceedings were sometimes pursued to seek to silence victims of wrongdoing, instead of relying on NDAs. Claims can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, there’s no legal aid. Allegations of sexual assault automatically meet the "serious harm" threshold, and the burden falls on the woman to prove what she said was true. In Stocker v Stocker, a woman's post saying her ex-husband "tried to strangle me" had to go all the way to the Supreme Court before judges agreed it did not mean he tried to kill her. And in Hay v Cresswell, a woman who won on truth and public interest said the legal process was almost as traumatising as the assault itself. Hayley was clear that defamation law still has a proper role for people who are wrongly accused, but that it is too easily turned into a weapon. Zelda closed by reminding us that confidentiality hides harm well beyond harassment, from the Post Office scandal to Grenfell. The law, she said, “is like water and it will find those gaps”.
Panel two: women in journalism, and the stories told about women
Mandy Garner chaired our second panel with Jacqui Hames, Hardeep Matharu, editor-in-chief of Byline Times, and Carole Cadwalladr, co-founder of The Nerve.
Jacqui presented Crimewatch for 16 years before being targeted by the press and having her phone hacked. Whenever she was interviewed about her experience, as a former detective, she wanted to talk about facts, but interviewers kept steering her towards tears to fit a story they’d already written. Mandy knew the feeling from her own IPSO complaint, when all anyone wanted was the emotional clip. She also spoke about the intimidation and maternity discrimination that drive so many women out of newsrooms.
Hardeep talked about the lazy narratives tabloids rely on, where women are either heroines or villains because that’s what sells. She shared some telling moments from her own career, like emails meant for her as editor going to male colleagues, and letters still starting “Dear Sir”. She wants an honest national conversation about what journalism is actually for, and her advice to young journalists was simple: be curious.
Carole spent 20 years on a freelance contract and got little support from her employer through a lawsuit and relentless online abuse. Telling women to just get off social media, she said, hands the space to a few white men. She warned that AI search summaries are draining traffic from news sites and the old model is dying. But she’s hopeful too. After the Observer was sold, she and four former colleagues launched The Nerve, part of a growing wave of independent journalism that readers are choosing to back directly.
Panel three: when the press comes for you
Our last panel, chaired by PJP coordinator Liz Pendleton, heard from campaigner and businesswoman Gina Miller and PR professional turned campaigner Anna Melton.
When Gina brought her legal challenges over Article 50, she was asking constitutional questions. Parts of the press, she said, asked a different one: “who does she think she is?” She described coverage that attacked her accent, background and family, one photo where her skin had been darkened and another where her poppy had been airbrushed out. The online abuse that followed, she said, started on the front pages. One man was jailed for a Facebook post calling for her to be killed, and she needed police protection for two years. None of her IPSO complaints were upheld. IPSO agreed some of the coverage was offensive but said its code didn’t cover it.
Anna’s story started with a phone call from her mum. The Daily Mail had published a first-person piece about mothers taking cocaine at children’s parties under the name Anna Melton, with biographical details that matched her own life and career. The Mail said it was a coincidence, IPSO sent her back to the Mail, and a media lawyer quoted a £12,000 retainer. In the end it was a LinkedIn post, and an introduction to PJP and a barrister we work with, that got her an apology. Women, she said, are becoming collateral damage in an age of clickbait and AI.
Asked how we get a press that’s free but properly regulated, both were clear: the press shouldn’t be regulating itself, and the current system is so broken it needs to start again. Gina’s advice to anyone speaking out was to hold on to your purpose and gather people around you. She also pushed back on the idea that women just need to be more resilient. “Visibility is not the same as voice,” she said.
Thank you, and what comes next
We left with a clear message. The silencing of women runs through the law, the newsroom and the front page, but small acts of courage add up. As Gina put it, change starts like a stream that becomes a river.
Thank you to Outer Temple Chambers for hosting us, to every speaker for being so open, and to everyone who came and asked such thoughtful questions. If you missed it, you can watch the whole conference on YouTube. See below.