Channel 4 News has called in security specialists after presenter Cathy Newman became the subject of “vicious misogynistic abuse” following a debate this week over the gender pay gap.
Newman’s full 30-minute interview with controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson on Tuesday has been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube so far.
But Ben de Pear, editor of Channel 4 News, said the level of “nastiness” and “threat” to Newman in the wake of the debate has been “unacceptable”.
He announced on Friday that security specialists were being brought in following the scale of the threat, adding that it was a “terrible indictment of the times we live in”.
On Thursday, Hayley Barlow, the head of communications at Channel 4 News, said that the level of abuse directed towards Newman in light of the interview is “something no one should have to endure”.
Peterson urged people to stop threatening Newman, posting on Twitter on Friday: “If you’re threatening her, stop. Try to be civilized in your criticism. It was words. Words, people, words. Remember those?”
Many others have spoken out against the abuse being directed towards Newman.
During the 30-minute interview, the pair discussed the gender pay gap, campus protests and the patriarchy.
Peterson told Newman: “I’m saying that the claim that the wage gap between men and women is only due to sex is wrong. And it is wrong, there’s no doubt about that.”
He argued that it was important to look at why there is a pay gap between men and women, for example personality traits such as “agreeableness”.
The debate comes as corporations, such as the BBC, are being criticised for paying men and women different salaries for the same job.
Peterson, who was in the UK to promote his new book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, has been outspoken about political correctness in the past, stating in 2016 that he would not use gender-neutral pronouns for transgender students at the University of Toronto.