Monica Byrne wrote in September 2012 about an unnamed male editor who in conversations with women writers who came to him to talk about work, turned the conversation to sex. On October 14, 2013, she updated the post to include the name of the editor, Bora Zivkovic. He is the former blogs editor for Scientific American and co-founder of Science Online. At least two other women blogged about being harassed by him.
Reports:
- Hannah Waters: https://medium.com/the-power-of-harassment/857e2f71059a
- Two Stories: One man got away with it, will the other too? by Kathleen Raven. https://medium.com/the-power-of-harassment/3e809dfadd77
Bora Zivkovic resigned from Science Online on October 16, 2013 and resigned from Scientific American on October 18, 2013. On October 21, 2013, Science Online published an additional statement banning Zivkovic from Science Online events for 2014, among other things.
Internet reactions
Reactions included many worries about Zivkovic's career and emotions. For example this post by Andrew Maynard, "When to name and shame on social media and when to show compassion" describes Maynard's emails to Byrne to ask her to remove Zivkovic's name from public view.
- http://2020science.org/2013/10/15/when-to-name-and-shame-on-social-media-and-when-to-show-compassion
On January 1, 2014, Science Online co-founder and board member Anton Zuiker wrote a 5000+ word post calling for forgiveness of Zivkovic. One part of the post tells the story of a man wrongly accused and convicted of rape:
- It’s a true story of a man who was exonerated by the science of DNA testing after 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He then befriended the woman who had wrongly identified him as her rapist, and together they have explored all the ways that they both were victimized by the true criminal, the legal system and the society around them.
This is followed by a statement that this story is not meant to directly compare the two situations.
On January 3, 2014, the Science Online posted a statement that they had asked Zuiker not to speak publicly about Zivkovic.