Female journalists conquering sexual harassment

Before Sarah Ejang took her current position as a journalist for Kioga FM, located in the Amolatar district in northern Uganda, she completed her journalism course with high hopes and excitement for what her career in media was to bring.

“I remember my first day at work in 2017, I was really excited about going out into the field, enjoying my freedom at work and being a voice for the voiceless,” the journalist tells us, “only did I get disappointed!”

Female journalists in Uganda are facing sexual harassment. However, it’s hard for a number of journalists to come out and speak about the problem in detail.

In the Amolatar district, the number of aspiring female journalists has fallen with many withdrawing from the profession due to fear.  This is a significant issue that interferes with journalists’ peace and security.

There is no ease or feeling of security when put under the circumstances of sexual harassment and these effects can have long-standing impacts on survivors’ mental and physical health.

Amolatar is still a low-developed area where technology growth is slow. The journalists in these areas also face challenges when trying to access training sessions as most are held in the central location. At times journalists do not have the transport needed to take them to the training session so it becomes too far for them to travel.

The Uganda press freedom report shows that 10.9 per cent of female journalists were abused in 2020 in Uganda.

Also in the recent ICFJ UNESCO survey, 73 per cent of female journalists faced both online and offline violence while at work. This has led to a number of organisations speaking out and addressing the issue to promote peace and security.

Article 29 (1) of the constitution of Uganda calls for freedom of expression for any Individual inclusive of the press. This means that journalists should work in harmony and be able to access and disseminate information without anything that hurts their lives or causes them to be unsafe.

Although, recently in Uganda, there is a new computer misuse act with a limitation on press freedom. The act involves an investigative reporter, for example, asking a source for permission to be recorded which is a limitation to the freedom of the journalist.

Furthermore, Sarah tells us how one of her previous editors, preferred a male journalist to go out into the field even if she had the skill for reporting and doing interviews which meant her participation in the newsroom was limited. Despite obtaining years of training in journalism, she felt useless in her chosen career field.

A number of female journalists are recruited according to their appearance for reasons that they can in the long run be used for sexual satisfaction.

Adding to the discrimination she was facing at work, Sarah’s director gave her conditions to either give in as his sexual partner or quit the job. This created a fearful working environment. Sarah stood her ground a didn’t give in.

However, when she got pregnant since she is a married woman, she was sent on leave without pay as a form of punishment for not giving in to the sexual advances. This treatment was unfair and demoralising for her.  The situation also puts stress on her family as they feared what would happen to her.

During the unpaid leave, Sarah wouldn’t provide for herself and her family with the basic necessities. Some days she would actually go without the supplements she needed yet she was almost due to give birth. She says she almost wanted to abandon Amolatar her homeland.

In her district in Amolatar, female journalists are even regarded as prostitutes. She mentioned her experience when it comes to sources abusing and mistreating female journalists.

Residents in Amolatar also take female journalists for granted, viewing them as sex objects. In the field, a number of sources want to touch their bodies and seduce them too while they are at work and mean business. This puts their marriages at stake as their husbands wonder what kind of personalities they deal with. The women leave in fear but are not yet bold enough to address this problem.

She adds: “One day as I was doing an accountability story for the world bank on a Health facility that up to now is incomplete, I would get verbal threats and instead people would want to use me sexually in exchange for the information that I requested for, something that was barring my work and causing fear even among my friends and family.”

Elsewhere in Kibuli, located in Uganda’s capital Kampala, Zam Nakityo a journalist with Mantie media says the negative implication and sexual exploitation of journalists lead to silence in the media as a whole. This is because it affects freedom of expression and democratic rights. She goes on to say that the number of professionals practising journalism after attaining their education is minimal and thus female journalists need support.

However, she says, in this digital era physical sexual harassment is being curbed as online working disables one’s physical presence which she regards as an advantage. She goes on further to encourage female journalists to observe good cultural and religious dressing practices to avoid enticing men. She further goes on to encourage female journalists to use digital platforms as a much safer model of information dissemination.

“Way back I always had to go to the field with a gentleman in fear of being sexually abused. The environment was not safe at all, making sexual harassment a major aspect of peace and security,” She argues, “However, the online platform has greatly saved me, I don’t fear being touched by a random individual, or physical and visual sexual abuse, I do my work peacefully online inclusive of interviews, data collection and others.”

She adds: “My husband and family are more confident about my safety.”

Limitations faced by organisations

During an interview with Lucy Anyango Ekadu, of Voice Media Group, the President of the Uganda Journalists Union, she outlines some of the limitations of fighting GBV of which sexual harassment comes on top. She says that some of the journalists don’t even know that they are sexually abused because it is institutionalised, the vice is normalised. She says that during her training she almost goes on further to explain to a number of journalists she interacts with that sexual harassment as well involves inappropriate body touches in the newsroom.

In addition to this journalists are unaware of the gender policy, this doesn’t exist in the newsroom yet this is something that should be given to all employees with their contracts.

“Such policies are guidelines that prompt peace and security,” she continues.

Lucy also comments on the redress measures: “In order to ensure peace and security in the country there have to be punishments for example if you are a victim of GBV where do you start from? “ she asks.

She notices that most of the time the disciplinary committees are led by men who will always favour their fellow men. If there is a woman on board they normally let themselves down by not being firm, arguing that they can get over it and thus continuity of the vice and normalising advances.

The economic situation is affecting many journalists, in that even when they know they are sexually harassed they are told to choose between their jobs or suffer humiliation.

In most private media Houses contracts are handled by media owners who make personal discussions. There are media Houses where journalists are being threatened to lose their jobs with the excuse of pandemic effects if they don’t accept the little pay. This is causing a number of journalists to go jobless or survive on a salary too little to support their basic needs.

Lucy continues: “These media houses are unprofessionally run, you find that most journalists get their jobs without contracts and therefore will be at the mercy of an individual and continue to live in fear of losing a job as they will have to please the individual that gave them the job in whatever way possible.

Furthermore, Lucy shares that freelancing in Uganda has been redefined especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of giving the story to the highest bidder as it is supposed to be, journalists have to find an alternative person to buy the story since they need the money. In this way, they can easily be compromised and end up being sexually harassed.

She says the police the authorities when it comes to maintaining law and order should be engaged to curb these malpractices. However, some journalists are still ignorant even about the gender office that exists at the police where they can be properly represented and issues on sexual harassment addressed.

Lucy Ekadu has gone further to train journalists to create awareness of GBV on her journey to achieving peace and security in Uganda. In these training sessions, she also involves authorities like the police. One of the major roles of the police is to ensure that there is peace in the country. During the training, she is also empowering them with general life skills like creating an alarm when a problem of sexual harassment arises.

Lucy also calls upon politicians to know that the sexual harassment vice is there and to amplify the need to bring the vice to a stop as a way of enhancing peace and security. She calls upon them to raise these needs in institutions like the parliament and regional meetings.

Lucy together with others has gone ahead to create a WhatsApp group where she has included authorities like the police and human rights representatives. In this private group, journalists can speak about their cases and in time deal with them accordingly.

She concludes by saying that there is hope given the personal empowerment of female journalists together with different institutions who are working to end sexual harassment in Uganda and across the world.

Sustainable Solutions to the sexual harassment vice.

Training by different organisations

A number of organisations are coming up to empower journalists with skills. Organisations like The Ultimate Media in conjunction with US media Uganda encourage gender balance as they recruit journalists for training. Female journalists are greatly represented and encouraged to go for these training sessions which are greatly interactive and practical. In such training, professionalism is emphasised, and human rights are demonstrated too.

The innovation Village In conjunction with DW Academia is also doing a great job of empowering journalists with skills. “These digital skills like mainstreaming are a solution to female sexual harassment. While mainstreaming for example one might not ha e to be on the scene as mainstreaming can be done remotely, the same thing with writing and interviews,” says Susan Asiimwe, a trainer from Innovation Village.

African Women in Media (AWiM) are also impacting journalists greatly driving the agenda to drive out sexual harassment among female journalists. Their platform AWiMNews provides space for addressing a number of issues to a wide public since it is online. Their training includes solutions-seeking journalism approaches to peace and security, safety for journalists, mental health and many others. Collectively these act as a sign that there is hope for African journalists to boldly speak out using different media tools and channels and bring sexual harassment to an end forwarding peace and security.

In Uganda, Hilda Twongeirwe through her non-government organisation Femrite is doing a tremendous job of uniting female writers. She is empowering women to empower other women to write. She, her premises in Bukoto, provides women with space to write, learn how to write stories, space for attending workshops, and share and encourage each other. She says it is through these stories that women, journalists inclusive are finding healing and thus breaking the silence. Hilda says,” the silence is normally not the act but the pain and suffering undergone.” She calls upon Ugandan women in media to be more expressive if Uganda is to beat the problem of sexual harassment.

The Uganda government had a training recently in September by the directorate of forensic services in partnership with the justice law and United Nations population fund was conducted to equip 64 Uganda police officers with skills in handling GBV using forensic evidence. Journalists are therefore called upon to continue as well working with the police to end sexual harassment under GBV by reporting all such cases.

The UN plan of action is a document that cautions all stakeholders to continue and improve the implementation of a number of measures. UNESCO together with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCR) is there to strengthen the UN plan of action on the safety of journalists to enhance peace and security. This plan includes measures like establishing a mechanism that calls for states to work together to safeguard the freedom of expression, information and general safety of journalists. This plan was based on the responses to a survey that UNESCO run. This brought suggestions to the way forward by member states of the group Friends of safety for journalists inclusive of which is the national commission of Kenya to which Uganda reports.

In 2021 at a celebration to mark an end to impunity for crimes in Uganda. A few leaders gathered at a small in-person group due to covid 19 restrictions. These included the Head of the EU delegation to Uganda. Secretary General of the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO, the minister of state for guidance, and journalists among others. The Secretary General of Uganda’s national commission for UNESCO emphasized UNESCO’s efforts to strengthen and promote freedom and ensure journalist safety.

Margaret Sentamu of Uganda Media Women Association proprietor Mama FM also calls upon Ugandan journalists to continue to fight for their freedom if they are to enjoy their work, she has gone on further to conduct a number of training sessions that will enable female journalists to fight sexual harassment and abuse thus curbing the vice of sexual harassment to enhance peace and security.

This story is part of the African Women in Media (AWiM) Peace and Security Journalism Programme in partnership with UNESCO, through the IPDC framework.