Channel 4 news presenter Cathy Newman has said a fake pornographic image depicting her was seen by her daughter amid a barrage of online abuse.
The 44-year-old journalist made the revelation as she detailed being targeted by internet “trolls” after a televised debate over the gender pay gap.
The vile abuse followed an interview with Jordan Peterson, a controversial Canadian psychologist, in 2018 and prompted Channel 4 to call in security experts to protect Ms Newman.
In a piece titled “It was dehumanising when my trolls circulated pornographic memes of me”, written for The Pool, Ms Newman details how the attacks unfolded and were seen by her 14-year-old daughter.
She wrote: “One of the 200 or so on-screen interviews I did this year [2018] was with the controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson. I challenged him about the gender pay gap, which he believes is a fiction, and what he calls the ‘murderous equity doctrine’ embraced by many modern women.
“Afterwards, his army of online followers, many hailing from the ‘alt-right’, went into attack mode, calling me a ‘c***’ and a ‘b****’, threatening to execute me and circulating pornographic memes of me on Instagram, one of which my 14-year-old daughter saw.”
In the article, she spoke of how the unregulated nature of sections of the internet allows for misogynistic abuse to be distributed.
The journalist, who has worked for Channel 4 since 2006, wrote: “The scale of the onslaught was overwhelming. On every platform, a torrent of vile and demeaning messages. It was dehumanising.”
She also wrote of how she would turn to women of the past who overcame misogyny, such as 19th century physician Sophia Jex-Blake, who was targeted by sexism during her studies.
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However, she overcame this to complete her degree and set up a practice in Edinburgh, which Ms Newman said will inspire her not to flee Twitter to escape the abusers.
Ms Newman’s and Mr Peterson’s interview was put online in full in January 2018.
Mr Peterson previously said he asked people to stop abusing Ms Newman.
He made this comment in an interview with the Radio Times, in which he said: “I tweeted out, ‘Look, lay the hell off. Enough is enough.’ Or something a little bit more civilised than that. You don’t need to beat a dead horse. I’m glad I wasn’t the one who was being torn to shreds online.”
The Standard has contacted Mr Peterson's representatives for comment.