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Janice Turner | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1964-04-08)8 April 1964 (age 61)[1] Wakefield,West Yorkshire, England |
| Education | Ridgewood School |
| Alma mater | University of Sussex |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | Columnist and feature writer forThe Times |
| Spouse | |
| Relatives | Peter Preston (father-in-law) |
Janice Turner (born 8 April 1964[2]) is a British journalist, and a columnist and feature writer forThe Times.
Turner was born inWakefield,West Yorkshire.[3] She went toRidgewood School[4] in the north of Doncaster. She attended theUniversity of Sussex, where she spent a year as an elected Student Union Officer and edited theUnionews magazine.
Before taking up her present post atThe Times, Turner was a magazine editor for severalwomen's titles, launchingThat's Life andReal. She left to write occasional columns forThe Guardian and wrote a column about magazines for thePress Gazette.
Turner won Interviewer of the Year in the 2014 and 2019 British Press Awards. She was shortlisted for best columnist in 2005,[5] 2007,[6] and 2008,[7] 2016 (highly commended), 2017, 2018 and 2019. She was shortlisted for best interviewer in 2006 and 2017.[8] She was short-listed for the 2017 Orwell Prize.[citation needed] Turner won the 2020 Orwell Prize for Journalism.[9] She won "Interviewer of the Year – Broadsheet" at the 2020 Press Awards.[10] She won Comment Journalist of the Year at the 2018 British Journalism Awards.
In 2016, Turner won the award "A Woman's Voice" in the Editorial Intelligence awards which she declined with the following statement:[11]
'Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female.'Simone de Beauvoir wrote those words in 1949. And in journalism, they are still true. Marina, Rosamund, Mary and I have written about elections, war, Brexit, celebrity, poverty, refugees, sport... But whatever women columnists write, and however well we write it, our words are heard only in a minor key. A woman's voice. I would be letting down the many talented female human beings on British newspapers if I accepted this award.
Turner has been criticised for her writing about transgender people.[12] Her articles on the topic include "Children sacrificed to appease trans lobby",[13] "The battle over gender has turned bloody",[14] and "Trans rapists are a danger in women’s jails".[15]Helen Belcher, co-founder ofTrans Media Watch, condemned Turner's columns, arguing that Turner painted trans people as "dangerous sex offenders" and claimed that theTimes columns such as Turner's would lead to trans teen suicides.[16][17][18] Turner condemned Belcher's comments,[19] calling them "ghastly" and "libelous".[16]The Times defended Turner, writing that "Concerns of biological women must not be silenced".[20]
In 2019, Turner tweeted that trans model and activistMunroe Bergdorf was unfit to be an ambassador forChildline because Bergdorf was a "porn model" who had posed forPlayboy. Bergdorf denied ever participating in porn, and stated that it was wrong to demonize persons that do in any case.NSPCC, the owner of Childline, cut ties with Bergdorf due to the controversy.[21]
Turner marriedBen Preston, executive editor ofThe Sunday Times, a former editor of theRadio Times, and a former deputy editor ofThe Times,[22] and the son ofPeter Preston, in 1995. The couple have two sons. She lives inCamberwell, south London.
Janice Turner, The Times
Turner has faced criticism for her articles on the issue of transgender identity
