Rwandan journalists on November 29 discussed, among other things, the importance of having sexual harassment in the media addressed in the media policy which is currently under revision for the first time since 2011.
This was during a "media stakeholders” event by Women In News (WIN), an initiative by the World Association of News Publishers that was started to develop and promote women’s leadership in the media.
The discussion was based on a 2020 Women In News Africa Report on sexual harassment in the media, where one in two women of 2,005 respondents have faced verbal or physical sexual harassment at work, and just over one in five cases of all sexual harassment are reported to authorities.
For Rwanda, among 103 respondents, 17 percent of men and 41 percent of women experienced verbal harassment, whereas 12 percent of men and 29 percent of women experienced physical harassment.
The report further shows that only 13 percent of those who faced sexual harassment chose to report it, resulting in action.
The reason why Rwandan journalists who faced sexual harassment did not report was mainly because they were afraid, they had organisational barriers, no evidence and others felt indifferent at the time, according to the report.
"I think it comes from our culture, where people frown upon sharing information on the abuse they have gone through. It could also be a gap in the legal system, where a person reports a case and they are not helped immediately,” Ange Eric Hatangimana who works at Umuseke, a local online media house said.
He added that the poor working conditions of a certain media house may also raise the risk for sexual harassment because it creates vulnerability.
Jane Godia, WIN’s Director for Africa said that newsrooms have to make it clear that sexual harassment cannot be normalised or trivialized because of the effects it has.
"Sexual harassment is a very traumatizing experience. Many people don’t know that it affects a person to whom it is being done, and it lives with them for the rest of their life. You cannot rub it or say it will go away,” Godia said.
She added that media houses should declare their workplaces safe and zero tolerant to sexual harassment, on top of engaging their staff regularly to know if it is happening and take serious measures in case it happens.
Emmanuel Habumuremyi, the Executive Secretary of the Rwandan Journalists Association (ARJ) said advocacy is needed to have the issue tackled in the revised media policy.
"We are going to keep advocating that this is enshrined in the legal framework that will govern the media sector in Rwanda, to continue organizing awareness sessions with journalists on the issue, and to follow up the implementation of existing anti-sexual harassment policies in place regarding the media sector,” Habumuremyi told The New Times.