Martha Kearney describes being groped and harassed as a young journalist

BBC presenter says 'I wish I'd felt stronger' - and praises MeToo movement

On the button: 'World at One' host Martha Kearney (BBC)

The broadcaster and journalist Martha Kearney has revealed how she was groped and harassed by senior members of staff while working as a young reporter in the 1980s.

The BBC presenter, who co-hosts Radio 4's flagship Today programme, said she endured men touching her inappropriately while she was Westminster correspondent at LBC.

“It was horrible and humiliating,” she told Radio Times magazine. “I didn't complain. It was the world of work, the rough and tumble of the newsroom…I wish I'd felt stronger, less intimidated, but in my 20s, bosses were powerful people."

The revelations appear to prove that even Fleet Street’s toughest and most respected female journalists – Ms Kearney reported from the front line of both Northern Ireland’s Troubles and Afghanistan – were not immune from licentious behaviour.

But the 60-year-old, who has previously hosted The World At One and Woman’s Hour, said she felt today’s female reporters were moving things forward.

"The young women I work with at Today have zero tolerance,” she said. “I hope MeToo will make a difference."

The former Newsnight political editor also spoke about the BBC’s gender pay gap and said it was time for corporation bosses to make good their promises of greater fairness.

"There was anger and shock when the pay figures came out," she said. "Now the BBC is moving in the right direction, but the pace may not be as fast as we'd like.

"I've done enough stories about equal pay over the years for Woman's Hour to know about the structural problems there are, and the need to make workplaces more family-friendly and so on, but there's something else going on, I think it's unconscious bias at all large organisations."

And she told the magazine she expected longstanding co-presenter John Humphrys to continue for some time, despite growing suggestions he could be facing retirement: “Sitting next to him in the studio, he’s crackling with energy,” she said.