By the Fawcett Society, following their complaint to IPSO over a newspaper column in The Sun in December 2022.‍

At Fawcett, we stand with and for women to tackle the structures plus systems that hold women back and limit our freedoms. That is why we had to take action against The Sun newspaper for the publication of Jeremy Clarkson’s racist and misogynistic column against the Duchess of Sussex, published on 18th December 2022.Clarkson’s column used vile, gratuitously sexist language to denigrate a high-profile woman of colour, and upset readers across the country. We know that because it sparked the largest number of complaints the press regulator, IPSO, has ever received.

When we first submitted our complaint to IPSO we did not know we were about to make history. Nor did we know how long the process would be and the pressures it would place on our very small, under-resourced team. What we did know was that for far too long, the media has been allowed to get away with sexism, hate, and harassment, and the consequences of this are far reaching – limiting women’s ability to speak out, normalising violence against women and girls, and lowering the standards of public discourse.Our complaint to IPSO, along with the WILDE Foundation, ended up as the first ever complaint to be upheld on the basis of sexism by the regulator. This milestone is both shocking and momentous, and the implications of it are far reaching.

We are calling time on the sexism and misogyny in the media.Now that several months have passed since the announcement, we have been reflecting on the entire process of making the complaint and seeing it through – which in its entirety took more than 6 months. A process which meant that we were facing the might of a media giant and all that means in terms of legal expertise and resources. We pride ourselves on our policy expertise and research capabilities at Fawcett, but this was not an easy process to navigate even for us. The clauses under which complaints are admissible aren’t easy to understand and that is just the start.

Even when we thought it was over after having received the initial decision, there were multiple rounds of appeals, endless conversations about timelines, and dense jargon that we had to try translate and respond to.While the decision went in our favour and we are so proud to have achieved this victory for women, we cannot help but ask the question – who is the system set out for? We spent considerable time on navigating this complaint at a time of very limited capacity and resource, and if this was so difficult for us, what is it like for women and other individuals who have to fight for their rights on their own, against huge media institutions that hold so much power? We hope that our experience can be a catalyst for further change to ensure accountability within the media industry.