{"id":434299,"date":"2026-02-19T14:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/434299\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:31:07","slug":"local-reporter-shocked-over-picture-of-his-face-on-punchbag-at-uk-town-hall-local-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/434299\/","title":{"rendered":"Local reporter \u2018shocked\u2019 over picture of his face on punchbag at UK town hall | Local government"},"content":{"rendered":"

A local newspaper journalist has said he was \u201cshocked\u201d after a picture of his face was printed out and attached to a punchbag at a town hall.<\/p>\n

Joe McCann, who has worked for the Melksham News for 10 years, was tipped off by a contact that a print-out of his face had been attached to a freestanding punchbag inside the building.<\/p>\n

As first reported by the Melksham News<\/a>, McCann raised the issue at a full council meeting on Monday, where councillors \u201cappeared shocked\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has recently come to my knowledge that within this council building, there is a punchbag with my face cut out and stuck to it, with the word \u2018punch me\u2019 written at the bottom of the punchbag,\u201d McCann told the meeting in the Wiltshire<\/a> town. \u201cI have a photo of it. I\u2019d like the council\u2019s response to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, the town\u2019s mayor, Saffi Rabey, said: \u201cThis is not acceptable and you have every right to be furious. I didn\u2019t know this existed and I am lost for words on what to say on this. This is not acceptable behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is understood that the punchbag was put there by council staff, rather than by elected representatives.<\/p>\n

A council spokesperson said: \u201cAs this is a personnel matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time. We can confirm that an investigation is under way and will be dealt with accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCann told the Guardian he was \u201cobviously pretty shocked\u201d when he was sent the picture of the desktop punchbag, which also carried the words \u201cpunch me\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cYou don\u2019t expect to see yourself attached to a punchbag most days of the week. I think initially I looked at it and went: \u2018That\u2019s a really odd thing to do, that doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

McCann initially thought it might have been a joke, but after speaking to colleagues he realised how unacceptable it was. \u201cThat\u2019s a council,\u201d he said, \u201cthey can\u2019t be doing that, they can\u2019t be having that on desks, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was also concerned by the wider implications of the incident. \u201cImagine that was someone who was a lot younger than me, who had just got into the industry? How would they feel?\u201d<\/p>\n

McCann said his paper did not have any particular agenda against the town council, and described their work as \u201clike the BBC\u201d \u2013 reporting fairly and impartially on local government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some faux pas where they made decisions as a council that have not been very well received by the public,\u201d he said, adding that council officers had decided to \u201cshoot the messenger\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that they\u2019ve gone down this route of looking at our articles and saying we\u2019re at fault for highlighting it, rather than their own policies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

McCann said that while he wouldn\u2019t describe the incident as the \u201ccrime of the century\u201d, it did play into increasing fears about journalists\u2019 safety and the harassment reporters often face while doing their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it builds into the picture that it\u2019s OK to behave like this,\u201d he said. \u201cYou look at America at the moment and you see the way that reporters are treated by some of the highest offices in the land, and we can\u2019t let that start creeping in here.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, my fear is that has already started happening slightly within this country,\u201d he added. \u201cIt needs to be raised, people need to be aware of it, and it needs to stamped out as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A local newspaper journalist has said he was \u201cshocked\u201d after a picture of his face was printed out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-434299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}