Laurence Fox comments about me on GB News
‘unforgivable’, Ava Evans says
Journalist says worst part of experience was trying to
explain politician’s ‘dehumanising’ remarks to father
PA Media
Sat 30 Sep
2023 08.49 BST
The
journalist Ava Evans has described the on-air comments made about her by
Laurence Fox on GB News as “unforgivable”.
Fox was
suspended by the channel after the actor-turned-politician made a series of
comments about the political correspondent on Tuesday, including suggesting no
one would want to “shag” her.
The
programme’s host, Dan Wootton, was also suspended, and the channel confirmed on
Friday that Calvin Robinson had been suspended after showing support on social
media for his fellow presenter.
Evans, who
works for the Politics Joe website, told the Daily Mail: “It would have been
horrible for a woman to hear she was being discussed in those terms in the pub.
“I’m not
naive. I know that men talk like that about women. But this was on national TV.
It was demeaning. It was dehumanising.
“As if it
was an option for him to have sex with me. As if men get to look at you and
decide if they want to ... Unforgivable.”
She said
the worst part of the experience had been explaining it to her father.
“My dad was
just confused. He said: ‘But why would he say this? Have you dated him?’ He
just didn’t get it,” she said.
“My parents
didn’t go to university. They have ordinary jobs and have always been so proud
of what I do and have achieved.
“Why should
my choice of career – political reporting – mean I have to contend with this?”
The former
producer for LBC radio said if she had been working on Tuesday’s Dan Wootton
Tonight show, she would have acted to stop the comments.
“If I had
been the producer on that show and the presenter wasn’t listening to commands
to shut it down, I would have taken that show off the air, no question. It
should never have been allowed to go as far as it did.”
Evans told
the Daily Mail the messages and threats she had received since the incident had
made her fear for her safety.
She
criticised the Conservative party MP Lee Anderson for the way he had publicised
an interview with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, on GB News but had not
commented on Fox’s remarks about her.
“This is an
elected representative and he hasn’t said anything publicly, or to me, and I
know him. I have worked with him.
“I felt it
showed contempt, really. By not saying anything, does he agree that it was OK
to sexualise me?
“What am I
supposed to think when I meet him in the office, or the parliamentary bar? And
this isn’t about me. It’s about every woman working in the lobby.”
The GB News
chief executive, Angelos Frangopolous, said on Friday he was “appalled” by the
remarks, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme they should not have gone to
air.
He issued a
personal apology to Evans, saying: “[The comments] did not reflect what we
believe is appropriate conversation as a media company, as a part of the
national conversation, it really is an apology, it was just really
inappropriate.”
He said GB
News had a “process to follow” in dealing with the suspended men but he
expected the internal investigation to be “resolved very quickly”.
MailOnline
announced on Thursday that it had terminated its contract with Wootton, who was
a columnist for the site.
Wootton
issued an apology to Evans, suggesting he should have intervened during the
broadcast, while Fox said he was “sorry for demeaning” the journalist.
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