LONG-TIME Observer columnist Nick Cohen has paused his writing for the newspaper amid an investigation by the publisher.
A spokesperson for Guardian News and Media, which publishes the Sunday newspaper, told the Press Gazette that Cohen has “agreed to step back from work for a period of time and co-operate with the company’s ongoing investigation”.
His weekly column will not be published until the probe into his conduct concludes. The company would not provide details on the nature of the investigation, or how long it could last.
Allegations – which Cohen has called “vile and untrue” – were circulated about the writer in 2020. He involved lawyers in what he called the “defamatory” posts on an anonymous Twitter profile, seeking a retraction and public apology for them.
The Good Law Project’s Jolyon Maugham recently contacted Guardian News and Media with concerns over Cohen, and made those allegations public last month when he was unhappy with the response from the company.
He says he has since been approached by other women raising further concerns about the “culture” at Guardian News and Media, which have been separate from the Cohen investigation.
Journalist Lucy Siegle is among those to have raised a complaint regarding Cohen, but alleges that when she met with executives the meeting was “aggressive” and she felt “gaslit”.
“Everything within that conversation, I think, was designed to distract, to delay, push me off the scent, muscle me off, intimidate me. I don’t think any of that was constructive,” she claimed.
Guardian News and Media did not respond to the Press Gazette’s request for comment.
Cohen told The Telegraph: "I am afraid I cannot say anything until the inquiry is over."
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