Women journalists most sexually harassed professionals – Mutsvangwa
By Elizabeth Mashiri | Masvingo Mirror |
Some 40% of women in media are sexually harassed in one way or another, The Minister of information, Publicity and Broadcasting services, Monica Mutsvangwa has said.
Most of the harassed women suffer in silence as only 1 out of 5 of the cases of harassments are reported, said Mutsvangwa.
“In Zimbabwe, her Ministry is prepared to do more to engage media regulatory authorities and heads of media house to put in place measures to stave off sexual harassment,” said Mutsvangwa.
Mutsvangwa said this on Thursday when she virtually launched the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Women In News Africa 2022 Cohort Leadership Training Programme.
The leadership acceleration programme started more than 12 years ago seek to mentor women in the media industry on how to take up space and occupy leadership positions in newsrooms.
Some 500 women applied for the 2022 programme and 181 were accepted after a tight selection process. Zimbabwe has 17 women in the programme out of the 60 that applied.
Participating countries are Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana, Rwanda, South Sudan and Zambia. The training will run for nine months.
WAN –IFRA women in news Executive Director, Melanie Walker said WIN Africa leadership acceleration programme is a game changer for the narrative of women in news.
“This programme is highly impactful, it has the potential to change female journalists’ careers trajectory. It is there to monitor the presence of women’s voices in news and in leadership positions,” said Walker.
