Local reporter ‘shocked’ over picture of his face on punchbag at UK town hall
A local newspaper journalist has said he was “shocked” after a picture of his face was printed out and attached to a punchbag at a town hall,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,As first reported by the Melksham News, McCann raised the issue at a full council meeting on Monday, where councillors “appeared shocked”,“It 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 ‘punch me’ written at the bottom of the punchbag,” McCann told the meeting in the Wiltshire town,“I have a photo of it.
I’d like the council’s response to that.”In response, the town’s mayor, Saffi Rabey, said: “This is not acceptable and you have every right to be furious.I didn’t know this existed and I am lost for words on what to say on this.This is not acceptable behaviour.”It is understood that the punchbag was put there by council staff, rather than by elected representatives.
A council spokesperson said: “As 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.”McCann told the Guardian he was “obviously pretty shocked” when he was sent the picture of the desktop punchbag, which also carried the words “punch me”.He said: “You don’t expect to see yourself attached to a punchbag most days of the week.I think initially I looked at it and went: ‘That’s a really odd thing to do, that doesn’t make any sense.
’”McCann initially thought it might have been a joke, but after speaking to colleagues he realised how unacceptable it was.“That’s a council,” he said, “they can’t be doing that, they can’t be having that on desks, it’s crazy.”He was also concerned by the wider implications of the incident.“Imagine that was someone who was a lot younger than me, who had just got into the industry? How would they feel?”McCann said his paper did not have any particular agenda against the town council, and described their work as “like the BBC” – reporting fairly and impartially on local government.“We’ve had some faux pas where they made decisions as a council that have not been very well received by the public,” he said, adding that council officers had decided to “shoot the messenger”.
“It seems to me that they’ve gone down this route of looking at our articles and saying we’re at fault for highlighting it, rather than their own policies,” he added.McCann said that while he wouldn’t describe the incident as the “crime of the century”, it did play into increasing fears about journalists’ safety and the harassment reporters often face while doing their jobs.“I would say it builds into the picture that it’s OK to behave like this,” he said.“You 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’t let that start creeping in here.“Personally, my fear is that has already started happening slightly within this country,” he added.
“It needs to be raised, people need to be aware of it, and it needs to stamped out as quickly as possible.” The title of the embedded video on this article was amended on 19 February 2026 to clarify that the video was of Melksham councillors.
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