Harassment faced by mediapersons in line of duty is often considered an ‘occupational hazard’ that is faced with a grin and bear it attitude.

However physical and sexual harassment faced by female journalists from their peers remains a barely acknowledged issue within the Pakistani media.

A recently released report by the International News Safety Institute and the International Women’s Media Foundation states that 64.48 per cent of women journalists had experienced ‘intimidation, threats or abuse’ in relation to their work.

In the same survey, 46.12 per cent respondents said that they had experienced sexual harassment from work colleagues, bosses and interviewees.

Recently, the Pakistani media was fascinated by the story of Indian journalist, Tehelka founder and editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal’s alleged sexual assault on a junior female colleague, who happened to be his friend’s daughter and his daughter’s best friend.

While Tejpal, who once called himself a ‘kamikaze’ artist, remains unknown to most Pakistanis, within the English press, he’s revered for his no holds barred sting operations and literary intellect.

When the Tejpal story first came out, reactions in Pakistani newsrooms and press clubs varied from dirty jokes about midlife crisis to heated debates on ‘why a big shot editor would do something like this’.

“I doubt Pakistani press would have covered the story if an editor was involved. Not that there is a dearth of such folks,” says Sabir (not his real name), a journalist with a local wire service.

He recalled how a few years ago the harassment case of a senior female reporter by a channel head was not picked up by any Pakistani publication or TV channel even though it was all over social media.

Policy of silence

The growth witnessed by Pakistani media in the past decade has been exceptional, resulting in more jobs and more women in the newsrooms.

While the media is quick to highlight cases of rapes and assaults, there is an unwritten policy of silence about the mess in the media.

Excluding the entertainment side, notorious for its casting-couch stories which remain hidden behind the glitz and glamour, the ‘serious’ side of the media has its fair share of harrowing tales, with the very media houses bypassing the laws that they run awareness campaigns about.

Pakistan has some nice checks and balances in place for curbing workplace harassment, particularly “The Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010”.

The Act amended Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (Act XLV of 1860) and the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 (Act V of 1898) which deal with ‘violation of modesty’.

However, most Pakistanis remain unaware of its contents, even those working within the media.

The Act defines sexual harassment as ‘any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or other verbal or written communication or physical conduct of a sexual nature or sexually demeaning attitudes, causing interference with work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment, or the attempt to punish the complainant for refusal to comply to such a request or is made a condition for employment’.

A TV reporter recalled her first brush with sexual harassment as a junior reporter in early 2010, when she was part of a group of Pakistani journalists sent abroad for media training.

“The first night during dinner, the chief reporter of our TV channel and another journalist asked if I was ‘up for some fun’ and wanted to hang out. Feeling queasy, I declined and went straight to my room. Around 11 in the night, I received a call. The chief reporter summoned me to his room to discuss a news package. When I refused, he threatened me with a show cause notice,” she recalled.

The weeklong training course was marred by a number of controversies, with a woman reporter on the verge of a breakdown after her soft drink was spiked (allegedly by one of them men in the group) and she was found in a state of distress by the housekeeping staff.

Back then, there were no laws on workplace harassment. However, the reporter went ahead and filed a complaint. Luckily, she had witnesses including the hotel staff to corroborate her story.

The management took immediate action and the reporter was fired.

“However, what I didn’t anticipate was the backlash. The smear campaign against me was so intense that I stopped working for a year just to regain sanity,” she adds.

The newsroom environment, in print, electronic and online, can be highly stressful and it is not unusual to see bullying spiral out of control and reach to the point of harassment.

“On top of it, there will always be some cameraman or makeup man or a producer who would want to touch you, rub against you or very explicitly ask for favours to give you assignments,” a reporter said.

One female reporter says that the amount of explicit SMS, MMS and emails sent ‘accidentally’ by male reporters was overwhelming. Others, including male journalists and cameramen, opined that sexual favours and harassment were rampant and could make or break a woman’s career.

A mid-career journalist says she is never given major assignments by her supervisors because she refuses to give into their demands, which range from having tea at press club to listening to the inadequacies of their wives to hooking up.

“If I pitched a story, it would be cast aside without any reason and a week later some other reporter would be working on it,” she said.

According to the survey INSI-IWMF survey, 93.09 per cent of the sexual harassment offences were carried out by men, with ‘unwanted comments on dress and appearance’, ‘suggestive remarks or sounds’ and ‘jokes of a sexual nature’ being the most common forms of harassment.

“Majority of the sexual harassment experienced was not reported to an employer, the police or any other authority,” the survey notes.

Unwilling to change?

With the passage of the ‘Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010’, every organisation is supposed to adopt the Code of Conduct prescribed by the law.

The code of conduct stresses on increasing awareness of the employees regarding the issue of harassment and suggests that the Code is displayed in languages understood by the majority of employees at noticeable spots.

Failure to do so would result in a fine of Rs100,000.

However, there is a resistance to adopting the Code of Conduct by various news organisations.

Most of the Urdu and English publications and TV channels, with the exception of three media houses, do not have the code of conduct displayed anywhere nor have any staff trainings been conducted on the issue. Same is true for the state run wire agency and private wire agencies.

A journalist from a daily published from Rawalpindi said that displaying such material would create more problems for everyone, cheekily adding: “It is not a problem in our office as there are no women”.

Maliha Husain, director Mehergarh, an NGO working on youth, gender and human rights, says that the number of complaints they often receive or hear about from the print media is much lower as compared to the electronic media.

However, Husain is quick to point out the dual standards of the media and says, “Pakistani media holds everyone accountable but considers itself above the law. The professional ethics and morality have gone down to the extent that it doesn’t seem to be bothered by any vices.”

She said that earlier on, the now defunct Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (AASHA) and Mehergarh had contacted the press clubs for displaying the code of conduct as well as carrying out informative seminars on the issue for the staff.

However, there requests were turned down.

Vicious Mess

At the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace, some 165 complaints were received this year from various public and private workers but none from the media.

However, sources within the media industry say that a large number of complaints are received by the managements of media houses but most go unheard or are withdrawn by the complainants.

Most female and male journalists Dawn spoke with said that the number one reason for not filing and pursuing workplace harassment complaints was the threat of defamation suit and job insecurity.

Many women say that filing a harassment complaint is ‘detrimental to their careers’.

Others say the inquiry committees are hogwash, adding: “The company will keep the person who is important to them. These are all arbitrary decisions and an inquiry committee in most cases is informed in advance.”

A victim says that when she reported the complaint to her editor, his reply shocked her. “You are not even good looking!”

She says that she filed the complaint but nothing ever came out of it.

“An inquiry was held over a period of two months, I was transferred to another section but I never found out the decision despite repeated requests. Eventually I left the job,” she adds.

According to the code of conduct, the three-member inquiry committee must submit its findings within 30 days and ‘the management has to make sure that the process is just and no retaliation against the complainant is allowed’.

Talking to Dawn, Federal Ombudsperson Justice Yasmin Abbasey stressed that a person cannot be slapped with a defamation suit if they lodge a complaint.

“These are empty threats. The organisation has to conduct an internal inquiry, if the victim is unsatisfied, they can then reach to the ombudsperson’s office. The defamation suit only comes if the allegations are untrue. No one can file a defamation suit against a person who files a complaint,” she stressed.

Men and women have their physical and mental differences but they must learn to coexist and most importantly learn to respect one another, the Ombudsperson commented.

“We have a grievance redressal mechanism for harassment complaints. The law supports victims but people need to come forward and let us know or things will not change,” Justice Abbasey says.

– Author can be reached at jajja.sumaira@gmail.com