Inside the Financial Times newsroom this winter, certainly one of its star investigative reporters, Madison Marriage, had a doubtlessly explosive scoop involving one other newspaper.

A distinguished left-wing columnist, Nick Cohen, had resigned from Guardian News & Media, and Ms. Marriage had proof that his departure adopted years of undesirable sexual advances and groping of feminine journalists.

Ms. Marriage specialised in such investigations. She gained an award for exposing a handsy black-tie event for Britain’s enterprise elite. A expertise mogul got indicted on rape charges after one other article.

But her investigation on Mr. Cohen, which she hoped would start a broader take a look at sexual misconduct within the British news media, was by no means revealed. The Financial Times’ editor, Roula Khalaf, killed it, based on interviews with a dozen Financial Times journalists.

It was not spiked due to reporting issues. Two girls have been prepared to talk overtly, and Ms. Marriage had supporting documentation on others. Rather, Ms. Khalaf stated that Mr. Cohen didn’t have a large enough enterprise profile to make him an “F.T. story,” colleagues stated.

Mr. Cohen’s departure and the demise of Ms. Marriage’s article provide a window into the British news media’s difficult relationship with the #MeToo motion. Leading American newsrooms — Fox News, CNN, NBC, The New York Times and others — have confronted misconduct allegations. British journalism has seen no such reckoning.

For Lucy Siegle, the demise of the Financial Times article hit particularly onerous. In 2018, she had reported Mr. Cohen to The Guardian for groping her within the newsroom, however nothing had occurred. Now it appeared the entire trade was defending itself.

“It just amplified this sense that #MeToo is nothing but a convenient hashtag for the British media,” Ms. Siegle stated. “The silence on its own industry is just really conspicuous.”

The British news media is smaller and cozier than its American counterpart, with journalists typically coming from the identical elite colleges. Stringent libel legal guidelines current one other hurdle. And in a conventional newsroom tradition of ingesting and gender imbalances, many tales of misconduct go untold, or face a combat.

In July 2016, for instance, The Daily Mail reported {that a} court docket had granted a home violence restraining order towards a former Financial Times govt, Ben Hughes. The article vanished from the web with out rationalization.

Then, in 2019, The Sun reported {that a} former Guardian govt, David Pemsel, had despatched messages to a former worker, pestering her for a sexual relationship. After he complained, the newspaper apologized and, though it did not say the article was inaccurate, deleted it.

In an e mail, Ms. Marriage stated she couldn’t touch upon “F.T. decision-making” and referred inquiries to a spokeswoman for the newspaper, who wouldn’t touch upon inner discussions. “Some reporting leads to published stories,” the spokeswoman stated, “and some not.” Ms. Khalaf didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Mr. Cohen spent 20 years as a columnist for The Observer, The Guardian’s Sunday sister paper. He gained a prestigious award for writing about right-wing politics within the run-up to Brexit. His e book “What’s Left” was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, Britain’s prime political journalism award. Inside the newsroom, he was seen as influential, colleagues stated, somebody who might assist your profession.

His resignation in January cited “health grounds.” Secretly, the newspaper group paid him a monetary settlement for quitting and agreed to confidentiality, based on three colleagues and an editor with whom Mr. Cohen spoke.

In his farewell, editors praised his “brilliant” and “incisive” protection.

Seven girls instructed The New York Times that Mr. Cohen had groped them or made different undesirable sexual advances over almost 20 years. Four insisted on anonymity, fearing skilled repercussions. In every case, The Times reviewed paperwork or in any other case corroborated their accounts.

Ms. Siegle recounted Mr. Cohen grabbing her backside within the newsroom round 2001. Five different girls described related encounters at pubs from 2008 to 2015. One stated Mr. Cohen had pressed his erection towards her thigh and kissed her uninvited after they met to debate her profession. A seventh stated Mr. Cohen had repeatedly supplied to ship her express images in 2018 whereas she labored as an unpaid copy editor for him.

Mr. Cohen’s repute was broadly recognized within the newsroom, based on 10 former colleagues, each female and male. One former colleague stated she and different feminine journalists had used a distinct entrance to a pub to keep away from being groped by him. Another lady stated she had prevented the bar downstairs from the newsroom after Mr. Cohen grabbed her knee throughout work drinks.

“There is so much sexism in a lot of British newspapers, and it seems, unfortunately, that many women believed sexual harassment was something you just had to put up with,” stated Heather Brooke, an investigative journalist who instructed The Times that Mr. Cohen had groped her at an awards ceremony in 2008, earlier than she had a excessive profile.

Guardian News & Media did examine Mr. Cohen, however solely after Ms. Siegle wrote on Twitter in 2021 about her expertise.

Even then, it was a narrative that few within the British news media wished to inform. The Guardian signed a confidentiality settlement with Mr. Cohen. The Financial Times spiked its story. Even the investigative journal Private Eye didn’t cowl his departure. When a reader emailed asking why, the editor replied: “Coverage of Nick Cohen’s departure from The Observer is obviously more problematic for The Eye than the others that you mention due to the fact that he used to write a freelance column for the magazine.”

Mr. Cohen’s departure acquired a point out solely in The Press Gazette, a media commerce web site.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Cohen stated he didn’t have the “faintest idea” about Ms. Siegle’s accusation and questioned why she had waited so lengthy to report it. He stated the dialog with the copy editor was “joking” amongst associates. He blamed their accusations on a marketing campaign by his critics, together with advocates for Russia and for transgender rights.

Informed that seven girls had come ahead with sexual misconduct complaints, Mr. Cohen exclaimed, “Oh, God.”

“I assume it’s stuff I was doing when I was drunk,” stated Mr. Cohen, a recovering alcoholic.

In a subsequent e mail, Mr. Cohen didn’t reply to particular accusations. “I have written at length about my alcoholism. I went clean seven years ago in 2016,” he stated. “I look back on my addicted life with deep shame.”

Many of the ladies and their colleagues have been particularly disenchanted in The Guardian due to its intensive #MeToo reporting. One week earlier than Ms. Siegle’s grievance in 2018, it solicited tips about office sexual harassment.

“We take all allegations of workplace harassment extremely seriously and aim to support victims in all circumstances,” a Guardian News & Media spokesman stated in an announcement. “We have processes which anyone can use to raise complaints so that they can be fully investigated.”

The firm didn’t reply to particular cases recognized by The Times. It stated that solely Ms. Siegle had complained to senior managers about Mr. Cohen, and that she had chosen to not pursue the grievance — one thing she denies. As quickly as Ms. Siegle went public, the corporate stated, it opened an investigation.

Mr. Cohen left the newspaper and instructed The Times that he had accepted a deal after contemplating the monetary implications for his household, particularly his son who has autism.

“I’m the only person whose life is turned over because of this,” he stated.

The Least Powerful Person

The #MeToo motion was sweeping by means of society on Feb. 1, 2018, when Ms. Siegle met with The Guardian’s managing editor, Jan Thompson, to report her experiences with Mr. Cohen.

Ms. Siegle had began at The Guardian round 2001 as an editorial assistant. She described standing at a photocopier when Mr. Cohen appeared behind her, cupped her backside with each palms, grunted and breathed closely into her ear.

Ms. Siegle remembers returning to her desk, humiliated. She by no means thought of reporting him. “I’m literally the least powerful person in the entire newsroom,” she stated.

For 14 years, as she superior at The Observer, she stated she prevented his desk and chaperoned interns “like a mother hen crossing a busy road.”

At the Feb. 1 assembly, Ms. Siegle stated Ms. Thompson responded by speaking concerning the abuse that Mr. Cohen confronted for his political beliefs, based on notes Ms. Siegle wrote afterward. She described the assembly as a “chaotic mess of defensiveness and attack.”

The Guardian spokesman stated Ms. Siegle, who was by then a freelancer for the newspaper, had opted to not pursue her grievance. Ms. Siegle says an investigation was by no means supplied. Every week after the assembly, Ms. Thompson emailed to let Ms. Siegle know that she was “here if you want to discuss further.” Ms. Siegle declined.

In interviews, former Observer and Guardian managers stated they knew Mr. Cohen had a ingesting drawback however couldn’t bear in mind anybody reporting sexual misconduct. “In a way, I’m puzzled,” stated Chris Elliott, a former managing editor of each papers. “Because I should have heard something about it on the grapevine.”

Jean Hannah Edelstein, an assistant at The Observer from 2007 to 2009, stated Mr. Cohen was not alone in his habits. She recalled her editor hitting her with a intercourse whip as she walked by. Over one boozy lunch, she stated, the identical editor supplied to assist her profession and urged that she pose bare to advertise her e book.

Several journalists stated Mr. Cohen’s repute for groping was removed from secret, and 5 girls stated he had groped them after work at pubs, together with one who stated he had groped her “five or six” instances in 2008.

Another lady, a contract journalist who had lately been homeless and had despair, stated she had met Mr. Cohen at a pub in 2010 to debate her profession. As they chatted, she stated, he abruptly kissed her on the mouth and pressed his erection towards her thigh. She stated she fled.

“I just remember walking along Waterloo Bridge and thinking, ‘I can’t go to The Guardian with this. Who would they believe?’” she stated. “He was one of their stars, and I was a freelance journalist with mental health issues.”

Ms. Brooke, the investigative journalist, stated she had initially dismissed her encounter with Mr. Cohen on the 2008 awards ceremony as “a one-off drunken mistake and didn’t take it further.” (“Nick Cohen got drunk and slapped my ass … ugh!” she wrote in her diary the subsequent day.)

But she stated that “now I know that this is a pattern of behavior over 20 years. I think it’s really important to speak out.”

Rebecca Watson, a author and commentator, stated Mr. Cohen had grabbed her backside at a e book get together in 2009. Her now-former husband stated he had witnessed it however didn’t confront Mr. Cohen as a result of he didn’t wish to trigger a scene.

“To sexually assault a stranger at a book launch, to be one of the more prominent people there, and to just assume there will be no comeuppance,” Ms. Watson stated.

Not lengthy after Ms. Siegle lodged her 2018 grievance with The Guardian, data present that Mr. Cohen started working with a contract copy editor, a single mom with autism.

She labored remotely for Mr. Cohen, unpaid. On June 29, 2018, a piece dialog over direct messages on Twitter turned punctuated with mutually flirtatious jokes. Mr. Cohen supplied to ship an express {photograph}. The lady declined. Mr. Cohen persevered and he or she deflected once more.

In the next days, the copy editor stated, Mr. Cohen turned chilly. In messages, she apologized if she had misinterpret the scenario. Eventually, she instructed him persevering with to work collectively “would be at a cost too high for my own mental health.”

Mr. Cohen, in his e mail to The Times, stated this was the one accusation to floor since he give up ingesting and stated it had been misrepresented. “It involves a friendship with a woman I never met that, sadly, went badly wrong,” he stated.

In 2019, the copy editor requested The Guardian’s human assets group concerning the course of for elevating sexual misconduct claims, emails present. She described the incident with out naming Mr. Cohen, saying she felt “huge pressure” to associate with his “banter.”

Because she was not a Guardian worker, the copy editor stated she was instructed that she wouldn’t learn of the investigation’s end result. Being frozen out of the method terrified her, so she backed off.

Going Public

In fall 2021, Ms. Siegle wrote on Twitter about her expertise. Her lawyer, Jolyon Maugham, started making noise. Ms. Thompson instantly emailed.

“Given that you have now tweeted publicly,” Ms. Thompson wrote, “I hope that it means that your position has now changed, and that you would be willing to provide further information so that we can investigate the matter fully.”

Ms. Siegle stated that was deceptive, that The Guardian had not supplied to analyze in 2018.

Eventually, Mr. Cohen was suspended and The Guardian employed a legislation agency to hold out an impartial inquiry. Neither Ms. Siegle nor the copy editor agreed to take part.

Mr. Cohen confirmed that he signed an settlement to depart the newspaper, however wouldn’t talk about the phrases.

Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye, stated he had mentioned the phrases of The Guardian’s take care of Mr. Cohen, who not writes for Private Eye. “Instead of any conclusion,” Mr. Hislop stated of the Guardian investigation, “it ended up with a secret agreement and a big cash payment.”

Inside the Financial Times

In December 2022, the Financial Times editor, Ms. Khalaf, emailed the newsroom concerning the coming 12 months’s priorities. Among them have been Ms. Marriage’s investigations into abuses of energy.

Publicly, the newspaper had declared “no topic or scandal off limits.” Privately, there have been limits.

Ms. Marriage had already begun investigating Mr. Cohen and sexual misconduct throughout the British news media, however Ms. Khalaf shackled the investigation, telling Ms. Marriage to not contact any new sources, based on two colleagues with whom Ms. Marriage spoke. Her group had already interviewed 5 of Mr. Cohen’s accusers.

In February, Ms. Khalaf stated she wouldn’t run the investigation as a news article, a number of journalists recalled, and urged that Ms. Marriage file it as an opinion piece. She did, but it surely nonetheless didn’t run.

A half-dozen Financial Times journalists stated they noticed it as a part of a wider reluctance to reveal dangerous habits inside its trade.

The Financial Times, like others, has wrestled with gender points. In June 2020, 56 feminine employees members wrote to Ms. Khalaf a couple of “bro culture” that excluded girls from decision-making.

Ms. Khalaf was sympathetic, one worker stated. Since changing into the newspaper’s first feminine editor in 2020, she has increased the number of women in senior positions.

A local of Lebanon, Ms. Khalaf isn’t a British media insider. Colleagues described her as a cautious editor, and a few stated the Cohen article had fallen sufferer to an institutional battle between the newspaper’s investigative aspirations and its conservative, enterprise roots.

Days after Ms. Marriage’s article was dropped, the newspaper ran an investigation into sexual harassment claims towards a former TikTook supervisor. The subsequent month, it ran 23 articles about sexual misconduct accusations inside Britain’s enterprise lobbying group.