A reporter has urged tougher police action on threats against journalists after sharing fears colleagues working from home are being forced to choose between “personal safety and their career”.

Ryan Evans, who works for the Basingstoke Gazette and Andover Advertiser, has spoken out about the abuse he has received in recent months, saying the switch to remote working due to the coronavirus pandemic has made the threats feel “more personal”.

Ryan, pictured, and his colleagues at the Newsquest weeklies have reported a number of incidents of online threats and abuse to the police in recent months, but prosecutions have not been forthcoming due to a lack of evidence.

In a comment piece for the Gazette about his experiences of abuse, he said the last few months had been “tough” despite having developed a “thick skin” during his time in the role.

Speaking to HTFP about the issue, Ryan said the number of threats he and his colleagues receive is “definitely increasing” and had “got worse” in recent months.

Speaking last month, he added: “My colleagues and I regularly have to deal with disgusting comments and physical threats. The most recent example was just last month, when we had to get the police involved after a man threatened to publish our personal details online because I reported that he had appeared in court.

“As much as we should be able to go about our day-to-day lives without them, I’m used to all the usual, annoying ‘slow news day’ or ‘clickbait’ comments. You quickly develop a thick skin as a local newspaper reporter. But the abuse and the threats are something that I will never be able to accept, and recently I’ve started to feel panicky whenever my phone goes off or see that I’ve got an email.

“In recent months, I’ve been threatened by defendants at court unhappy we’ve reported their case, been shouted at by a press officer unhappy that I was asking questions of him in connection with the town’s cladding crisis, and been told that I’m a “joke of a reporter” simply for sharing my experiences.

“Journalists don’t sign up for this – in my case, I got into journalism because I want to fight for people’s right to know what is going on where they live – and we shouldn’t have to simply live with it.

“The abuse feels so much more personal at the minute. Like many people, we at the Gazette are working from home and have been since last March. That means when people are abusing or threatening me, I’m sat in my living room.

“I don’t have my team around me to support me – although they have been great albeit virtually – and I have no escape. Normally, if you have a bad day at work where this happens, you can go home, have a nice meal and escape from that world for the evening.

“Now that I’m working and living in the same room, all the horrible words and threats linger in the room when I try and switch off at the end of a hard day.”

Ryan, 22, is originally from Cornwall and began working in Basingstoke as a trainee reporter in August 2019 after graduating from Bournemouth University.

He qualified as a senior journalist in March after passing the National Qualification in Journalism.

Ryan said: “In terms of how we can change this, I believe that until people are held accountable for what they say, whether it be on social media or on the phone, nothing will change.

“Every time we’ve gone to the police, they’ve been unable to prosecute because of a lack of evidence, and the perpetrator gets away with just a telling off. Of course I understand that the police can’t prosecute without evidence, but unless people learn that you can’t say what you want without consequence, nothing is going to change.

“I also think that people don’t understand the job of a local reporter – I certainly had no idea before I started my job here. Far from the perception that we’re living in our ivory towers disconnected from society, local reporters generally live on patch and are normal members of the public you’d probably pass on the street every day. We genuinely care about the stories we write, after all, they affect us too.

“I love my job and fighting for the right of the people of Basingstoke and Andover to know what is going on in the corridors of power, but I don’t want to be in a position in the future where I have to choose between my personal safety and my career, and I fear that others may well be in that position.”