That petition, it is perhaps helpful to note, was in the spirit of The Athens Declaration which I, Jeremy Corbyn and Ece Temelkuran issued on 13 th May 2022 on behalf of DiEM25 and the Progressive International. Anthony’s article was in response to a petition I gladly co-signed that, in the face of a New Cold War and a collapsing climate, called for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, for the aversion of another war over Taiwan, for the de-escalation of the New Cold War engulfing, primarily, the United States and China and, lastly, for a genuine global Green New Deal. I felt so hated for saying things - things that are scientifically, biologically and factually true - and so unsupported by people who I know secretly agree with me”.Īnother Guardian contributor with similar views on trans issues, Sarah Ditum, said she was joining The Sunday Times last week.Anthony Burnett, a friend, comrade and collaborator, just published an article in openDemocracy, a splendid and much loved source of progressive ideas and material, to which he alerted me in a mail reading: “Dear Yanis, we disagree but in solidarity!” Since Anthony’s article mentions me, along with Jeremy Corbyn, in its subtitle, here I am, responding in the spirit of solidarity, affection and goodwill. In an article for Unherd in February, Freeman wrote that “there was a period, about three years ago, when I honestly thought about quitting my job. Suzanne Moore, another Guardian columnist who had written repeatedly on gender critical themes, left the paper months later, accusing the letter’s signatories of “basically bull” her. In 2020, 338 members of The Guardian staff signed a letter to editor Viner criticising the paper’s “repeated decision to publish anti-trans views,” which they said had “cemented our reputation as a publication hostile to trans rights and trans employees”. Tensions between Guardian journalists holding different views on trans issues have repeatedly spilled into public view. In recent years Freeman has argued against trans women sharing women’s single-sex spaces and criticised the NHS service that deals with child gender identity issues. She has been a vocal commentator on feminism and misogyny, telling Amnesty in 2018: “I think there is a connection between the misogyny women face offline and the abuse they face online. In 2013 she was one of several female journalists targeted by anonymous bomb threats. We wish her all the best.”įreeman spent the early part of her Guardian career on the fashion team, before moving on to more general column and feature-writing duties. “She is a wonderful writer and has been a fantastic Guardian colleague for many years. Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said: “We are sorry to see Hadley Freeman leave. Original story 13 October: Hadley Freeman, a long-time Guardian staffer, is departing the newspaper for The Sunday Times.įreeman, who joined The Guardian in 2000, currently serves as a columnist and features writer for the paper.Īt The Sunday Times she will contribute weekly columns for the paper’s comment page and will also be “writing features and interviews across the paper,” she told Press Gazette.įreeman ends her tenure at The Guardian at the end of November and starts at News UK at the beginning of 2023. It seems to me that at the Guardian that side has won.” You have said that both sides in the gender debate are equally passionate – but only one side demands censorship. “When I asked what part of my identity was acceptable to turn into copy, it was suggested that I write about my children,” she said.įreeman told Viner: “It is astonishing to me that the progressive media has handed such an own goal to the right, closing its eyes to concerns about the safeguarding out of fear that to do otherwise would lead to accusations of bigotry. Mermaids is now being investigated by the Charity Commission over safeguarding concerns.Īccording to Private Eye, Freeman claimed she had been told not to write about gender issues as a woman just as she was previously warned against writing about former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn from her perspective as a Jew. She claimed she had repeatedly urged Guardian journalists to investigate the trans children’s charity Mermaids but was ignored “either because of the editors’ ideological beliefs or – more likely – their fear of the reaction in the office”. Update 2 November: Private Eye has revealed Hadley Freeman wrote a “scathing” farewell letter to Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner in which she said “you and I have known for some time that I no longer fit at the Guardian”.įreeman reportedly cited her views on “the gender issue”, saying “the paper has become internally dysfunctional, with writers and editors alike all terrified of saying The Wrong Take”.
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