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'I think twice about tweeting things and probably am less controversial than I would be in person'
By PA
Television rugby reporter Lauren Jenkins says that social media users must be made to confirm their identity after the BBC’s Sonja McLaughlan was subjected to online abuse following Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations game between Wales and England.
England Rugby and the Welsh Rugby Union have sent support to McLaughlan, who described how she had been reduced to tears by abuse on social media after her post-match interviews that included questions to England captain Owen Farrell and head coach Eddie Jones.
The Principality Stadium clash, won 40-24 by Wales, was dominated by two controversial refereeing decisions.
And Jenkins, who works as a freelance reporter and presenter for the BBC, Premier Sports and Welsh channel S4C, says social media anonymity can no longer be allowed to happen.
“For me, the only way is getting users to confirm their identity,” Jenkins told the PA news agency.
“The sad thing is that calls for identity verification have been around for years and we don’t seem to be getting any closer to that.
“But it is a multi-layered issue. Some predict that could discriminate against the poorest in society. I think around a billion people don’t have official identification.
“I would say I limit my (social media) use these days. I think twice about tweeting things and probably am less controversial than I would be in person because I can’t be bothered to entertain the responses.
“Twitter can be a really awful beast sometimes and no-one should ever be reduced to tears for doing their job.
“It can actually be quite a lonely job at times. In this environment you are often alone watching the match and yet suddenly part of a million different households with just a few minutes to cover what was a ridiculously-eventful match.
“It is unbelievably tough and Sonja has years of experience. The thought that the very first thing she encounters after that is a wave of abuse is very sad.”
The Welsh Rugby Union, meanwhile has joined England Rugby in condemning social media abuse directed at England players and members of the media following Saturday’s encounter.
England prop Ellis Genge revealed he had been subjected to death threats after footage surfaced of him apparently neglecting to clap the victorious Welsh players off the pitch following a match that Wales won 40-24.
In a statement, the WRU said: “We are hugely disappointed and saddened by the social media abuse directed at opposition players and members of the media following the game at the weekend.
“As a rugby community, these individuals have let us all down. This has to stop. It is not acceptable.”
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Latest Comments
Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to commentsYou always get idiots who go overboard. What else is new? I ignore them. Why bother?
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