As much as 58% of sexual harassment reports lead to no action in sub-Saharan African newsrooms, study finds.
By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published (Updated )
Sexual harassment often goes unchecked in sub-Saharan African newsrooms despite many employers having policies in place, according to a study conducted by City, University of London and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Researchers Dr Lindsey Blumell (City) and Dinfin Mulupi (Maryland) surveyed nearly 600 news professionals and analysed 17 anti-sexual harassment policies in newsrooms across eight sub-Saharan African countries between July and October 2020.
The study sampled data from Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Key findings from the study include:
- 58% of reports of sexual harassment lead to no action, and frequently only a warning when it did
- 30% of victims report harassment to bosses
- Just 16.4% of respondents were aware of their organisation's anti-sexual harassment policies
- Women are 2.5 times more likely to be targeted.
The study finds that societal and cultural norms lead to ineffective policies. Only when these policies are accompanied by workplace training on what is considered sexual harassment, the company policies that exist, and how the organisation would respond, does the research find an increase of newsrooms responding to these reports of abuse.
The research was carried out as a joint project with the Women in News World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRAN), which is aims to eliminate sexual harassment in the news business.
The analysis compares policies with best practice guidelines, which researchers define as a clear definition of sexual harassment, reliable reporting mechanisms, due process for disciplinary action, training, and a monitoring system.
Dr Lindsey Blumell said:
Dinfin Mulupi said:
'The Impact of Anti-Sexual Harassment Policies on Sexual Harassment Prevention in the Workplace’ by Dr Lindsey Blumell and Dinfin Mulupi is published in Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal.
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