Nepal

Sexual Harassment Plagues Nepalese Newsrooms

Twenty percent of women working in the media in the Kathmandu Valley say they’ve been victims of sexual harassment.

Sexual Harassment Plagues Nepalese Newsrooms

KATHMANDU, NEPAL – A 28-year-old female reporter says she started working at Terai Television Network, a private TV news station, in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, to bring women’s issues to light. But she quit nine months later because of sexual harassment by a colleague.

 

“It was fun working in television, but I had to face challenges also,” says the reporter, who requested anonymity to preserve her reputation professionally.

 

She says the harassment started two months after starting her job during 2011. A man called her four times in a row for several nights straight. By checking the phone number and scrutinizing the voice, she realized it was one of her male colleagues.

 

“One day, he even proposed to have sex, due to which I got very tense,” she says.

 

She scolded him and switched off her phone for a while.

 

But his phone calls didn’t stop. For seven months, she says she suffered harassment from him and other male colleagues. They touched her physically, stared at her for long periods, teased her and called her outside of work hours.

 

She told her female colleagues about the harassment and that she wanted to quit. But her female co-workers, who also endured sexual harassment from the same man and other colleagues, discouraged her from quitting out of fear.

 

She says she considered taking legal action against the co-worker who harassed her. But she doubted that he would be penalized, so she refrained.

 

“If only the perpetrators would be penalized, such incidents would be known to the public,” she says. “If not, I would only be stigmatized. Therefore, I quit my job.”

 

She left the company seven months after the harassment started.

 

“I am disappointed over journalism as a profession because of constant harassment I had to face,” she says.

 

She says she is considering changing her profession because of the abuse.

 

“I have also a postgraduate degree in banking,” she says. “Now, I am thinking to switch over to a career in the banking sector.”

 

Female journalists working in the Nepalese media say they face sexual harassment in their offices from their male colleagues. But few report it, citing fear of social stigma and professional retribution as well as low conviction rates for perpetrators because of the difficulty producing evidence. Media management say they promote women-friendly environments, but few have official policies on gender equity or sexual harassment. While a 2009 bill on sexual harassment in the workplace is still pending, a government-formed task force has made recommendations for how to reduce abuse.

 

Twenty percent of 152 female journalists interviewed for a 2011 study said that they had faced sexual harassment, according to “Status of Women Journalists Working in Kathmandu Valley,” by Sancharika Samuha, a forum of women journalists and communicators. Seventeen percent of the 46 media houses surveyed lacked policies on sexual harassment.

  

The government established a six-member task force, the Task Force for the Study on Gender Violence in the Media Houses, during June 2012 to investigate sexual harassment in the media sector.

 

“Verbal abuse is more rampant than physical abuse in the media houses,” says Sangita Lama, a journalist and member of the task force. “The most glaring harassment include[s] the use of words with sexual intonations in the newsroom, leaving the female workers midway to home while returning from the night duty, asking for date[s], unnecessary comment[s] on clothes and casual body touch[es] by the male co-workers.”

 

The report noted that harassment is especially a problem in Kathmandu.

 

“The cases of sexual harassment of the media workers is more severe in the capital city than in other places,” Lama says.

 

Sexual violence and abuse in the media houses have discouraged women from taking up journalism as their professions, says Shiva Gaunle, a president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, a professional representative body of more than 8,000 journalists.

 

Victims say that sexual harassment occurs in both private and public media houses.

 

A 25-year-old female journalist says that she has worked for six years as a journalist for one of the four government media agencies in Nepal. She says that she has suffered sexual harassment by a senior employee since her first day. 

 

“When I was coming out of the restroom, an [older] editor came out of the men’s room and caressed my cheeks,” says the journalist, who declined to publish her name for fear of being fired.

 

She says he also sexually harassed other female journalists. But because of his seniority, she says she couldn’t speak out against his actions.

 

“He was an executive officer and was nearly of my father’s age,” she says. “And, therefore, I couldn’t say anything to him.”

 

The women are frustrated with their superiors who harass and stare at them, she says. But because there are only four female journalists at the office where she works, they don’t report the sexual harassment for fear of losing their jobs. 

 

“I may lose my job if I complain,” says the journalist, who works on a contract basis. “Therefore, I cannot share my problems with others.”

 

She says that she is aware of the legal options available and even covers violence against women in her work. But she doubts that the perpetrator in her case would be penalized, so she has not reported the abuse against her.

 

“With great difficulty, I got this job on contract,” she says. “Therefore, I am silently putting up for now. In [the] future, let’s see how things go.”

 

Bimal Subedi, a private lawyer and legal counselor, says that although female journalists talk about their harassment experiences informally, they do not take any legal action against the perpetrators.

 

“If they gather evidence and start the legal process, the perpetrators will surely be punished,” he says.

 

Gaunle says that the Federation of Nepali Journalists is concerned about all unreported cases of sexual harassment in the workplace. 

 

“To help legally, Federation of Nepali Journalists runs a legal desk where complaints can be lodged with confidentiality of the information,” he says.

 

But if the victims don’t report their problems, the Federation of Nepali Journalists can’t provide legal assistance and security for them, Gaunle says.

 

“There should be no such kind of violence in the society,” Gaunle says. “If complaints are lodged against these perpetrators, I can assure that Federation of Nepali Journalists will start the process for legal action.”

 

The federation keeps victims’ names confidential during the legal process, but females who suffer sexual harassment often still don’t seek justice, says Bhaktiram Ghimire, spokesman for the federation’s law division. He cites two main reasons for this: They fear the stigma attached to sexual abuse will affect their careers. Most also lack the tangible evidence required to convict the perpetrators.

 

But Nirmala Sharma, chairwoman of Sancharika Samuha, says that female journalists who suffer sexual harassment are becoming more vocal.

 

“A decade ago, there were very few women in the media sector,” Sharma says. “So it was difficult to speak out. Now, the number of women in this sector has increased, and there are also other organizations helping us in this struggle. These incidents should be made public, and the perpetrators should be penalized.”

 

Still, there are few cases in which those charged with sexual abuse against female journalists face conviction, Sharma says based on her organization’s research. This is because it’s difficult to gather evidence required legally to convict perpetrators.

 

Sharma says that low conviction rates perpetuate sexual harassment. Female journalists also continue to face sexual harassment because newsrooms aren’t women-friendly. For example, women work long hours at night, temporary employment terms give bosses undue authority, there aren’t separate toilets for men and women, and companies don’t have gender equity policies.

 

Kul Chandra Bhatta, news chief officer for Terai Television Network’s news section, says that the company generates a women-friendly atmosphere. But there is no official policy in place against sexual harassment. As such, managers handle reports of abuse from female journalists on a case-by-case basis, taking the appropriate action depending on the situation.

 

Sri Ram Singh Basnet, chief editor of National News Agency, the government media's print arm, says that the agency has yet to implement an official policy on sexual harassment. But he says that it set a precedent by giving a stern warning of dismissal to a male journalist who misbehaved with a woman journalist. Since then, no other incidents have occurred. 

 

Basnet attributes sexual harassment to the lack of separate toilets for women. He says that women must also accept rides from their male colleagues because of the lack of transportation facilities, which can also lead to abuse.

 

“Under such situation, women journalists should also remain alert and tactful,” he says.

 

Sudheer Sharma, the editor of Kantipur Daily, one of the major private sector newspapers in Nepal, says that men perpetrate the majority of violence against women because Nepalese society is patriarchal.

 

He says that the Kantipur Daily doesn’t have a set policy against sexual abuse but rather forms working policies based on practice. Staff members can openly share their grievances during weekly meetings, and newspaper management immediately investigates cases of abuse against women and punishes perpetrators.

 

Sharma says that the incidents of gender-based and sexual abuse against female journalists have gradually decreased during the last decade. He says this is because newspapers have publicized cases and authorities have taken punitive measures against the perpetrators. Also, the label “abuser” dissuades potential perpetrators because it would damage their credibility and reputation.

 

With an increasing number of workplace sexual harassment incidents becoming public during recent years, the Legislative Bills Committee drafted a bill during 2009 on sexual harassment in the workplace, says Sapana Pradhan Malla, a former Constituent Assembly of Nepal member. Sexual harassment is currently illegal in Nepal. But the bill would strengthen punishments to include a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of 25,000 rupees ($290) for sexual harassment, including gestures and suggestive language.

 

This will greatly decrease harassment, Malla says. But the bill is still pending, as the Constituent Assembly of Nepal dissolved in May 2012 and has yet to reconvene.  

 

The government task force investigating sexual harassment in the media sector presented a report to the prime minister last year based on the minutes of interactions, interviews and discussions on the sexual harassment faced by female journalists in the media sector, Lama says.

 

“It was recommended that there should be a complaint desk in the Department of Information,” Lama says, “and that gender-friendly policies should be implemented in the media houses and that Federation of Nepali Journalists, Press Council [Nepal] and the Nepal Television should take actions to enforce the recommendations.”

 

The task force recommended that each media house develop an equitable gender policy, provide a female-friendly code of conduct, punish employees who commit violence against female colleagues within or outside the office, establish a women’s help desk, ensure the security of female interns, develop women-friendly evaluation indicators for work environments and construct separate toilets for women.

 

It also recommended that the Ministry of Information and Communications make its Code of Conduct more women-friendly by adding moral and behavioral clauses to it. Lama says that if the government and media houses execute these recommendations, sexual harassment of female journalists would decrease substantially.