News presenter slams bosses over gender pay gap

CHANNEL 4 News presenter Cathy Newman has hit out at her employer ITN after it revealed its 19.6% gender pay gap.

The media company, which makes daily news programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, also announced a bonus gap of 77.2% this week.

Newman (43) said she was not “wholly surprised” by the revelations, but added she was “shocked at the extent of the disparity — worse than the national average, and worse than the BBC.”

She said ITN’s chief executive John Hardie had briefed staff on Wednesday and “both men and women expressed palpable anger”.

Mr Hardie has vowed to pledge the pay gap in half within five years and ensure half of all senior roles are filled by women during the same period.

Newman said she and the women at ITN “are not going to let this go, and we will be pressing management to deliver on their promises.”

She also raised suspicions that ITN and other companies are only taking action because they are obliged by law to publish figures and called for similar transparency over a possible pay gap for black, Asian and minority ethnic employees.

“Senior women have been pressing the company for years to be transparent on the gender pay gap,” she added.

A report on BBC staff found the equivalent gender pay gap was 10.7% and as part of Channel 4 News’ coverage Newman conducted a sit-in at the BBC in order to secure an interview with the corporation’s director-general Lord Tony Hall.

Newman wrote: “The irony is journalists at ITN have been robust in tackling the BBC on this issue. We’re employed to ask tough questions: now our own bosses are having to answer some themselves.”

The broadcaster labelled the gap an “endemic” problem across society.

“Today, I’m happy to say I personally am paid fairly at ITN, but I’m angry that so many years on, many of my female colleagues are still having to argue for the top roles and the top pay.”