Metro

This Is Not Right

2025

In November 2024, Metro launched a year-long campaign – This Is Not Right – to confront the national emergency of violence against women and girls. Timed to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the campaign aimed to raise awareness, amplify survivor voices and drive meaningful change.

With one in four women in the UK experiencing domestic abuse in their lifetime – and over 1.4 million affected in the past year alone – Metro is using its platform to highlight the scale of the crisis. The campaign will prioritise the stories of victims, survivors, families and activists, while also promoting responsible reporting on crimes against women.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper backed the campaign, writing in the Metro that these crimes must be treated as a national emergency. She pledged Labour’s commitment to halving violence against women within the next decade and praised the campaign’s role in empowering the public to take action.

Women’s Aid joined as a formal partner of the campaign, with additional support from Refuge, White Ribbon, Killed Women, and the End Violence Against Women Coalition. Together, these organisations are helping to shape the campaign’s message and reach.

Metro editor-in-chief Deborah Arthurs said the statistics are stark – a 37 per cent rise in violence against women and girls between 2018 and 2023, more than 100 women killed each year in the UK by men, and a global figure showing a woman or girl is killed in her own home every 11 minutes. She said the campaign will not only give women a platform but also engage men, to empower all readers to take action against this systemic issue.

The campaign will harness Metro’s reach – five million daily readers across print and social media, and 78.3 million monthly online users – to spread the message that violence against women must end. It will signpost readers to support services, challenge harmful narratives and educate the public on how to be part of the solution.

Women’s Aid director of engagement Randip Thompson said the media has a pivotal role to play in ending gender-based violence – and that campaigns like This Is Not Right are invaluable in changing narratives, validating survivors and encouraging public action.