Harassment evidence falls on deaf ears, says lecturer

Evidence that two in fve female journalists in Africa face harassment at work is “too often dismissed by bosses”, according to a senior journalism lecturer at City.

A recent study by by WAN-IFRA Women in News found that 40 per cent of women worldwide face verbal or physical sexual harassment in the media workplace. A workshop was held by the African Women in Media association at its annual event in Fes, Morocco in December, based on research conducted by City’s Dr Lindsey Blumell and Dinfn Mulupi. They investigated the prevalence of sexual harassment in the media industry over the last fve years, and suggested measures for companies to help eradicate harassment.

“What we found is most times organisations will either dismiss the report or they will just give a warning,” said Dr Blumell.

Sexual harrassment policies currently in place in African countries have proved to be ineffective.

“The point of this workshop is to enable newsrooms to implement better policies, and actually act on them,”

Dr Blumell explained. The report also found that one in two female media professionals in Africa face sexual harassment in the workplace and under a third of sexual harassment cases are reported to management.

The workshop focused on best practice guidelines for defning sexual harassment, the procedures of the complaint process, and the handling. The fnal part is monitoring and adjusting the policy based on needs.

As part of her ongoing research, Dr Blumell will follow up with the organisations to see whether new policies or changes have been implemented.

“They basically have to change the hierarchies of newsrooms and change how things work to hold people accountable,” said Dr Blumell. “It’s a slow process, but if it were easy then we would have been able to eradicate sexual harassment overnight. #MeToo would have addressed it.

“We’re challenging the core ideas of gender and society, shifting the culture, and attitudes. That takes a lot of education, training and time.”

Kiran Duggal

Political journos in hot seat

A special journalism version of the BBC’s famous Question Time was held at City and called on some distinguished political journalists and reporters.

City alumni Pippa Crerar (political editor at The Guardian and MA Newspaper graduate), Faisal Islam (economics editor at BBC News and MA Newspaper graduate), and Katy Balls (political editor at The Spectator and MA Magazine Journalism graduate) returned to the department.

Chris Mason, another former City student, was posed to dash from BBC Studios to host the panel but was unable to make it to the event. Fortunately, Professor Barney Jones, who leads the Political Headlines module and previously worked as the editor of The Andrew Marr Show, stepped in.

Speaking about her experience returning to City, Ms Balls said: “It’s always nice to come back and see the next year of students.”

John Nicolson MP, a journalist-turned-politician who previously worked for the BBC and ITV as a political broadcast journalist, served as the fourth guest on the panel.

Journalism head, Professor Mel Bunce said: “One of the biggest privileges of teaching at City is knowing that your students will go on to make a difference in the world, and that could not be better illustrated than our panel for this inaugural Question Time event.

“The work that Pippa, Faisal, and Katy do holds politicians to account,” she said. “It has helped topple governments, and informs and infuences how audiences think about the world.”

Ella Kipling