The allegations came after speaking to over 30 former and current members of the LGBTQIA media organisation
BY DIVA STAFF, IMAGE BY GETTY
A BBC investigation into LGBTQIA media organisation PinkNews has revealed multiple alleged instances of sexual misconduct towards staff members by the couple who run the company.
The BBC investigation stated that five members of the team saw Anthony James, a director at PinkNews and the husband of CEO Benjamin Cohen, “kissing and touching a junior colleague who they say appeared too drunk to consent”.
Interviewing over 30 former and current employees, the BBC investigation also stated that several employees had noted “a culture of heavy drinking [which] led to instances when founder Benjamin Cohen and his husband behaved inappropriately towards younger male employees”.
Stephan Kyriacou, who worked at PinkNews between 2019-2021, spoke to the BBC about an incident where Cohen had allegedly “slapped him on the bottom in front of everyone else”.
Speaking to the BBC, Kyriacou said: “None of us really felt like we could complain because we didn’t know what was going to happen to us. Ben is very well-known and we didn’t know whether he was going to badmouth us to people.”
Alongside these alleged incidents, the BBC investigation noted that some employees had raised allegations of “misogyny” at PinkNews, with some even alleging that “young female members of staff had been asked to act as the couple’s surrogates”. One anonymous staff member told the BBC it was “part and parcel” of how “misogynistic” PinkNews was.
The BBC investigation raised allegations of a “toxic” working environment at PinkNews, and the investigation noted that they had seen “doctors’ records referring to stress and mental health struggles attributed to the work environment at PinkNews”.
Cohen and James have not replied to the BBC investigation with a statement at the time of writing this article.
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