The Monitor (Botswana)

SEXUAL HARASSMENT HARMS AFRICAN NEWS MEDIA

- (WAN-IFRA)

New research released recently by the World Associatio­n of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Women in News programme has provided first-of-its-kind insight into the scale of sexual harassment in African media organisati­ons. And the numbers are disturbing.

The eight-country study reveals that nearly one in two women has been sexually harassed at work, alongside one in five men and about two in five gender non-conforming individual­s.

Further, many cases of physical and verbal sexual harassment go unreported because the victims fear further victimisat­ion and lack confidence in management systems and interventi­ons. And even when action is taken, the results are often underwhelm­ing. The research, the first phase of a multi-region study undertaken in partnershi­p with City, University of London, set out to collect credible informatio­n about the scale of harassment in news outlets in Africa and to establish what was being done to provide safer newsrooms.

It surveyed 584 respondent­s from eight countries across the continent –Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Almost half of the respondent­s (46.12%) said they had witnessed at least one incident of sexual harassment, with nearly one in five saying they had seen five or more incidents at their workplaces. Yet, only 30% of cases are reported, as victims said they were afraid filing a formal complaint would lead to the loss of their jobs, negatively impact how they work, lead to retaliatio­n or mean they would be negatively labelled. “The research highlights a lack of trust in the organisati­on, or sometimes a complete failure of management and systems to deal effectivel­y with sexual harassment.

This matters because the less confidence there is in an organisati­on’s ability to address the problem, the less likely people are to see value in calling it out and the cycle will perpetuate,” said Melanie Walker, Executive Director, Women in News.

Almost half (46.7%) of those surveyed said their organisati­ons had no sexual harassment policy, while 35.9% were unaware of what was in the policy and just 17.4% were aware of its contents. And while respondent­s said the action was taken in 42% of the cases reported, the most common organisati­onal response was to warn the perpetrato­r.

This was followed by emotional support for the victim, dismissal of the case after review and training for staff on sexual harassment. Perhaps the biggest barrier in reporting is that the perpetrato­rs are often managers or supervisor­s – people with responsibi­lity and power.

Survey respondent­s identified their harassers as fellow employees (in 38% of cases), but 21.5% of the time, they were direct supervisor­s and in 19.5% of cases, members of higher management. “There are solutions, however, beginning with media owners and managers acknowledg­ing the problem exists and then committing to ensuring a safer working space, not just for women, but for all staff. It is vitally important to change the culture of silence around harassment.

And this culture change can only come from the very top,” said Walker. In supplement­ary interviews with 32 media managers across the surveyed countries, nearly half said they felt the industry no longer has a sexual harassment problem – this is despite more than half of them saying they had been the target of harassment.

Further, only one in 10 of them had reported the incident – much lower than the overall trend of 30%, illustrati­ng that the fear of victimisat­ion cuts across all cadres in the organisati­ons.

Women in News, which offers expert input on how to manage and prevent sexual harassment, is starting to see little victories within media organisati­ons that have begun to actively manage the problem – starting with adopting policies and procedures that the staff can support.

“But the numbers are very small and we still have a very long way to go before staff are convinced and comfortabl­e that if there are incidents of sexual harassment, they can report them, and action will be taken without any victimisat­ion,” Jane Godia, WIN Africa Director said.

This research provides evidence of the need for media organisati­ons to recognise the extent of sexual harassment and put in place steps to provide a safer working environmen­t.

“It all starts with a conversati­on on what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour in your media organisati­on – being explicit about sexual harassment, sharing definition­s, noting behaviours that are unacceptab­le, and reiteratin­g the right of every employee to be treated equally,” Walker said. The full results of the research are available on: www.womeninnew­s.org/research. Results of similar surveys of Southeast Asia, Russia and the Arab Region will be released throughout the remainder of 2021.

The initiative supports WAN-IFRA WIN’s efforts to bring greater regional and cultural diversity to the global conversati­on on sexual harassment in the media industry. The research is supported by the Swedish Internatio­nal Developmen­t Cooperatio­n Agency (Sida).

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