A 2021 global study analysing sexual harassment in 20 countries by Women in News has revealed that women are two times more likely to experience sexual harassment than men.
The study shows that, on average, 56% of women journalists have experienced verbal sexual harassment and at least 38% have been physically harassed at their workplace.
Similarly, 25% and 15% of the men reported they had been verbally and sexually harassed at least once.
In Uganda, 69% and 30.9% of female and male journalists reported having been sexually harassed. The report further shows that majority of the sexual harassment cases are unreported.
This is largely due to; fear of negative impact, fear of losing their job, fear of not being believed, and fear of retaliation.
On average, one in four respondents said they did not report their experience of harassment because their organisation lacked the mechanism to do so or they did not know how.
Only 11% of respondents reported knowing whether their organisations even had a sexual harassment policy.
