Support and a warning message. The “Women Journalists in Sports” association denounced on Saturday “cyberharassment and ordinary sexism” existing in the world of sports journalism by supporting Vanessa Le Moigne. Two days ago, the BeIN Sports presenter announced that she no longer wanted to cover football for these reasons.
“It is time for the world of sport, its authorities and its platforms to take their responsibilities,” argued the association in a press release distributed on social networks and entitled Skill has no gender.
“Insults, remarks about our physique, permanent questioning of our legitimacy: cyberharassment and ordinary sexism, also present in many editorial offices, are not the price we pay for doing our job,” continues the association in this press release, relayed by several female sports journalists on social networks.
“A reality that has become unbearable”
According to the association, “the departure of (…) Vanessa Le Moigne is not a simple career choice and does not result from a single event, it is the reflection of a reality that has become unbearable”.
The journalist from the BeIN Sports channel indicated on Instagram on Wednesday that she no longer wanted to cover football after the end of the season. She reported a series of insulting messages received after the final of the African Cup of Nations Senegal – Morocco (1-0 after) on January 18 and her interview with Senegalese goalkeeper Édouard Mendy.
This final ended in controversial conditions and created great tensions between supporters of the two countries. “My reaction was knee-jerk and I am convinced of my choice for many reasons. I am not angry but resigned,” Vanessa Le Moigne told the newspaper L’Équipe on Saturday.
Despite everything, she was present in Guingamp to cover, at the start of the afternoon, the Ligue 2 match between Guingamp and Troyes on BeIN Sports.
