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Rudo Mandiro
Media houses should have change agents who create a safe and secure working environment for all journalists and the Government will continue to work tirelessly to liquidate sexual harassment, a Cabinet minister has said.
Speaking during the 2023 Gender Media Conference organised by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere said there was need to create a conducive working environment for every Zimbabwean.
“I also want to underline that it is the Government’s policy to liquidate sexual harassment activities in newsrooms in order to support the girl child, in order also to support each and every Zimbabwean because we want a safe and secure workplace for every Zimbabwean.
“The most important thing that we would like to urge all media houses to do is to have a change in terms of organisational behaviour. We need change agents to be able to create a safe and secure working environment for all journalists, be it male or female.
“There is need to come up with measures to protect the girl child from sexual harassment in the newsroom but we need to understand the challenges beyond the complaints,” said Minister Muswere.
The second most important thing was to find measures to stop sexual harassment in media houses to ensure a fully functional and sustainable gender-sensitive media industry which was very robust with a lot of women participating as well.
Minister Muswere urged media houses to have a change in terms of organisational behaviour which could have been created by former senior journalists during their years of service.
“Why do we have sexual harassment issues across different media organisations? Some say it could be the organisational behaviour, perhaps that was created by the older generation of journalists in different media houses; that it becomes customary for a male or a female senior journalist or editor or an executive, to abuse junior journalists or other practitioners,” he said.
Minister Muswere commended the FNF Foundation for regularly providing training and refresher courses for young female journalists.
“Senior (female) journalists like editors Victoria Ruzvidzo and Faith Zaba took plus two decades to become editors. They have a lot of experience in the newsrooms and that is how they managed to break the ceiling but perhaps for the young journalists, you should not only break the ceiling, but you should smash it,” he added.
He also urged young journalists to work through honesty, hard work and consistency.
Online Reporter