The Media Council of Kenya has partnered with Women in News and City University of London to address sexual harassment in the media industry.
The partners today met media managers and associations to discuss the role of policies in addressing sexual harassment issues which is critical to the working environment of journalists.
Mr Victor Bwire, Media Council of Kenya Director for Media Training and Development challenged human resource managers in media houses to enforce human resource policies and promote best practices in their respective media houses to protect their staff.
“Human Resource Managers in media houses should ensure enforcement of HR Policies to promote best practices and protect their staff. Sexual harassment is a human rights issue which not only affects their productivity as it’s also a big challenge on mental health and sustainability of the media business”, noted Mr Bwire.
He further noted that sexual harassment was a pervasive issue that cuts across different departments in the media houses.
“Sexual harassment not only happens within newsrooms. We know of cases in other departments”, he said.
He underscored the importance of conducting sensitisation forums on the sexual harassment policies in newsrooms especially among editors who are promoted to managerial positions.
“Sensitisation of Sexual Offences Act and Sexual Harassment Policies is important for editors given their senior roles in management as majority lack personal relation skills and capacity to handle sexual harassment cases”.