Toolkit for women journalists by Women In News

Preventing sexual harassment in media organizations

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Toolkit for media employers and employees

In order to prevent sexual harassment in media organizations, Wan-Ifra’s Women In News group has designed a toolkit for media employers and employees. Currently, the toolkit is available in English but its Arabic version is claimed to be available soon. The toolkit is available in several formats, including digital, print and editable Word versions.

The toolkit comprises a practical guide for media employers and employees, an awareness poster that can be displayed in newsrooms and offices, a sample sexual harassment policy, a sample sexual harassment survey, and sample communications templates. It is designed for both, employers and employees, in the media industry.

For employers

The toolkit will help media employers to understand their professional and legal obligations to protect their employees against sexual harassment at work. Further, it will educate employers to identify sexual harassment and the employees who are at risk of being sexually harassed, and hence help them to develop a suitable organizational sexual harassment policy.

It will also help them develop preventative measures to address incidents of sexual harassment and lay down guidelines to handle sexual harassment complaints. The toolkit will provide information to develop strategies for supporting employees who have been sexually harassed.

For employees

The toolkit will help employees to understand their rights at work while identifying instances of sexual harassment. It will guide employees to know what behavior is unacceptable and the steps to take to deal with sexual harassment.

What the guide does and does not do

While the guide addresses multiple issues and perspectives related to sexual harassment, it is not exhaustive. It does not focus on sexual harassment and security threats faced by women journalists out in the field. There are other resources for this purpose and they are mentioned in this guide. However, it also does not address the pervasive and evolving problem of online harassment. Finally, this guide does not and cannot reconcile the incalculable professional cost to female media professionals who have missed out on promotions, breaking stories or other opportunities for career progression as a result of having to navigate sexual harassment along their professional paths.

Women in Indian media

According to an article on the FactChecker website www.factchecker.in, as many as 1971 cases of sexual harassment of women at the workplace were registered in India in the four years till 12 December 2017. Cases reported increased by 45% from 371 in 2014, to 539 in 2017 (till December 12, 2017). Similarly, an article on Quartz India featured a survey by the Indian National Bar Association (INBA) conducted in 2017, reporting that of the 6,047 participants (both male and female), 38% said they’d faced harassment at the workplace. Of these, 69% did not complain about it.

Furthermore, 70% women reported that they did not report sexual harassment by superiors because they feared the consequences, according to a survey conducted by the INBA in 2017 of 6,047 respondents.

While companies in India are legally required to have policies and comply with The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, it was reported by the International Labour Organization that very few Indian employers follow this statute. A report by FICCI-EY November 2015 states that 36% of Indian companies and 25% among MNCs are not compliant with the Sexual Harassment Act, 2013.

Moreover, an article on Business Standard website reported that according to the law, an internal complaints committee (ICC) is mandatory in every private or public organisation that has 10 or more employees. However, 36% of Indian companies and 25% of MNCs had not yet constituted their ICCs, the 2015 research study, Fostering Safe Workplaces, by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) showed.

Sujata Madhok, an Indian activist and developmental journalist specializing in women’s issues, says that she has not observed any such committee in media organizations in India during her career. Even if organizations comply with the policy, women seldom complain for fear of losing their jobs and the lifelong stigma that comes with speaking out on sexual harassment issues. Madhok explained that women hardly report cases of sexual harassment because they are afraid of the repercussions. Even when they do report it, their reputation and lives are put at stake as they fear difficulties in finding another job.

Madhok referred to the case of Tanu Sharma as an example, an India TV journalist, who attempted suicide at the gates of the India TV premises in Noida in June 2014 after she was barred entry. She was forced to take the grave step as she was being routinely harassed by two employees of India TV and was terminated from her job for speaking up and protesting this behavior.

Even the women who dare to take the courageous step of reporting and fighting instances of harassment, often end up entangled in long-winding legal procedures. In spite of help from women’s rights lawyers, about whom you can view here, they are compelled to give up their legal rights and even leave the city where they have been earning a living in order to avoid further and even more degrading forms of harassment.

As rightly put by Madhok, in order to adress the issues faced by women at workplace, employers need to form an internal complaints committee in their organizations. Moreover, there is an urgent need for mutual respect and rapport among employees to support each other in case someone is subject to sexual harassment in the workplace.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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