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Combating sexual harassment in newsrooms to mark International Women’s Day
Originally published on 13 March, 2023.
According to the released by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) in 2022, an average of 41% of women journalists have experienced verbal and/or physical harassment in the workplace. Only 1 in 5 have reported the incident, meaning that 80% of cases remain unreported. Kenya is no exception to these global trends.
The Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) in cooperation with UNESCO marked the International Women’s Day 2023, by launching the documentary ‘.’ The documentary was developed within the framework of the UNESCO project to promote safer workspaces for women in the media, sensitize and build the capacity of community media workers, both female and male, on the issue of sexual harassment in seven counties in Kenya. The Executive Director of AMWIK, Ms. Patience Nyange, in her opening remarks mentioned that 1 in 2 women in Kenya have undergone sexual harassment in the newsrooms, and that sexual harassment has often been used as a tool to silence women in the newsroom in the context of unequal balance of power where women in senior positions are few.
‘We should all actively participate in challenging gender stereotypes. Making of the gender policy will accelerate change in male dominated fields’ she said.
Ms Misako Ito, UNESCO Regional Advisor for Communication and Information in Africa, in her address, stated that only a low number of women speaks out after having encountered sexual harassment at the workplace. She referenced the study from UNESCO and ICFJ The Chilling: Global trends in online violence against women journalists that highlighted the fear of women journalists to report incidences of harassment for fear of losing their careers. She also spoke of the milestones that UNESCO had achieved to secure safe working spaces for women journalists, including the online course titled on safety of women journalists, the UNESCO and the Thompson Reuters Foundation published guide for newsrooms and the report .
The highlight of the event were remarks given by Ms. Racheal Nakitare, a seasoned broadcast journalist and content producer. Ms. Nakitare took participants through the process of researching and shooting of the documentary. The main challenges that her team faced was the lack of visual shots to use for the documentary and last-minute cancellations by respondents. According to Ms. Nakitare, many of the respondents feared repercussions on their careers thus choose to be silent. There were also many who preferred to speak off-camera leading to limited footage.
The documentary took much longer than expected because we had to employ a human touch to our work. Many of the respondents said that they do not have the courage to speak and feel that they lack the platform to speak about their challenges. We all need to get out of our shells to fight sexual harassment head on.
It was realized that only one of the interviewed cases received action once a report was made at the workplace. No reports had been made by the other interviewed cases. Additionally, most perpetrators were direct supervisors of victims as well as the reporting office, making it difficult to report to them. Men who were interviewed noted that there was a need for learning and training on sexual harassment for both men and women if significant change in the media sector is to be realized.
The guest speaker Ms. Winnie Obure, founder of Teen Seed Africa, a community-based organization targeting teenagers, including teenage mothers, who have undergone sexual abuse uses her platforms to tell the real-life stories of victims of sexual abuse and harassment, as well as offer psychosocial support.
We need to push for the ratification of the ILO Convention 190 in Kenya to help us fully address sexual harassment. There is need for every woman to feel safe anywhere they are. Our dignity as women is non-negotiable.
The research and production of the documentary was made possible thanks to the support of the UNESCO International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), which is the only multilateral forum in the UN system designed to mobilize the international community to promote media development and to secure a healthy environment for the growth of free and pluralistic media.
