Media portrayal of sex crimes can affect whether women choose to report attacks, a group of campaigners has told the Leveson Inquiry.Heather Harvey, manager at Eaves Housing for Women, a charity working to re-home victims of violence, said a survey on Mumsnet, an internet forum for parents, showed the majority of women who had experienced some form of rape did not report it for fear of being blamed.Harvey said threatening online comments attacking women who have commented on political issues and women's rights curtailed freedom of expression. She also said irresponsible reporting by the press can present violence against women as inevitable.Anna Van Heeswijk, campaigns manager for Object, said such violence is often trivialised and even eroticised in the press.Van Heeswijk said a “gradient of extremity” ran through the Sun, Daily Star and Daily Sport.She added: “The common theme throughout this is the page three feature which is of a topless or sometimes fully nude young woman who is objectified”.She also drew attention to a picture of Charlotte Church, then 15, printed in the Daily Star in 2001 with the headline “She’s a big girl now”. The article referred to the singer looking “chest swell” at a film premiere.Harvey and Van Heeswijk gave evidence alongside other representatives of women’s and equality groups, Jacqui Hunt of Equality Now and Marai Larasi, joint chair at the End Violence against Women Coalition.Larasi told the inquiry she wanted to see an understanding of violence against women in the press, and some “myth-busting” of media stereotypes. She said stories about young women being raped focused on the behaviour, attitude and actions of the victims.