Sexual Harassment in the Media: 2020-2021 Research

"Data trends from 20 countries across 5 continents paint a concerning picture on the prevalence of sexual harassment in the media industry."

WAN-IFRA Women in News (WIN) partnered with City, University of London to develop an online data site and a series of reports that share findings from their global study analysing sexual harassment in the media. Covering 20 countries across Africa, Southeast Asia, Eurasia (Russia), the Arab Region, and Central America, the study is designed to understand patterns of sexual harassment in newsrooms and to gauge perceptions from officers with positions of power within media organisations.

WIN defines sexual harassment as "unwanted and offensive behaviour, of a sexual nature, that violates a person's dignity and makes them feel degraded, humiliated, intimidated or threatened." The organisation's mission is "to advance and establish stable media environments that embrace equality in content and in the way people are treated, regardless of gender." WIN believes that this goal cannot be achieved if sexual harassment of any kind is tolerated and is therefore working to eradicate harassment through research and the development of tools for the media.

Two methods for data collection were used in this research project: a survey of 2,000 media personnel, distributed online; and in-depth interviews with 85 media executives conducted online through video calls. The survey responses were anonymous, and interview participants were assigned a pseudonym to protect their identity. Data collection took place from October 2020 to September 2021.

The research project focused on regions where WIN operates. Countries included:

• Africa: Botswana, Malawi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
• Arab Region: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine
• Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam
• Central America: Nicaragua and El Salvador

The following are some of the key findings:

• On average, 41% of women journalists have experienced verbal or physical sexual harassment in the workplace. However, only 1 in 5 reported the incident. Though less prevalent, men have not been spared, with an average of 12% experiencing verbal and/or physical harassment. On average, 30% of journalists experienced verbal and/or physical harassment.
• 80% of sexual harassment cases are unreported, largely due to fear – fear of negative impact, fear of losing one's job, fear of not being believed, and fear of retaliation. In addition, on average, 1 in 4 respondents said they did not report their experience of harassment because their organisation lacked the mechanism to do so and/or they did not know how. Only 11% of respondents reported knowing whether their organisations even had a sexual harassment policy.
• Of the few cases that are reported, action is taken by the organisation in only half the cases and is most commonly limited to warning the perpetrator (41%).
• Per the interviewees, experiences of sexual harassment were typically perpetrated by fellow employees (39%) or management (19% by higher management and 18.9% by direct supervisor).
• Of the 85 executives, including 51 women, interviewed across all regions, 43.5% acknowledged that they themselves experienced sexual harassment - similar to the findings reported by women journalists. Yet only 27% of these same executives believe that it is still an issue in the industry.
• The research showed that if there is a gender policy and if media professionals were trained on it, then it was more likely that an organisation would take action when incidences of harassment were reported.

Additional trends and regional variations:

• Results from Nicaragua and El Salvador revealed that 42% of respondents had experienced some form of sexual harassment. However, at a country level, it is Kenya (56%), Botswana (52%), and Zambia (51%) that have the highest rates of harassment.
• The five countries studied in Southeast Asia showed the lowest overall prevalence of harassment, at 21%. Russia, representing Eurasia, revealed overall figures only slightly higher, at 22%.
• Central America shows the highest experience of verbal sexual harassment for women, with Russia showing the lowest, at 35%.
• Reporting rates by region also show some variation, with Central America revealing the highest level of reporting, at 26%, and the Arab region showing the lowest, at 15%.

The individual regional reports (available in PDF format) outline steps media organisations can take and also refer readers to the Sexual Harassment Toolkit (2018) developed by WIN.