In Kismayo on 22nd April the first topic of the workshops took place whereby different TV’s and Radio’s directors, editors and journalist attended to share opinions of the concerned topic.
It was opened with a word of prayer followed by the chairperson of Somali Women Journalist to welcome the crowd and gave a briefing of the topic.
The objective of the topic being, to encourage the women journalist to open up and share their views .We aimed for the journalists to feel free to point out their views even if their directors were present. We tried to build the confidence in the journalist that were present so as to bring forward and interact with their directors and leaders in the media houses openly.
In the first face, one of the journalists who is currently working with JubalandTv shared that in the past 4years in her former media house before she joined JubalandTv she experienced a physical harassment whereby one of her workmates once asked for her dignity and she refused and reported immediately to the police without informing her media colleagues or the director because at that moment she was so aggressive and could not handle, so the only option she had was to go the police which made the criminal more aggressive and threatened to kill her, during that case the lady had to move from the country to the neighboring country, Kenya for safety purposes. She shared that the case was finally handled and she is happy to be back and are in good terms with the colleague
In Kismayo the percentage of harassment is as low as 5 to 10% and the journalist shared that the kind of harassment they undergo is the programs they prepare is taken over believing that they are not capable of doing it. The lady journalist are believed to be not as active as the men journalist ,the reason being in education wise they are not up to level.
The team had a discussion that who can be the cause of the harassment; men or women? There was a strong discussion on it, some shared that the ladies are the cause, for
- Lack of knowledge so the lady uses her beauty to get the work thus giving the chance to the guy to take advantage.
- Fame ;for the lady journalist to be recognized she gets close to the head so that she can be ahead of the other ladies thus making the opposite gender to get the chance.
In the other hand they mentioned the men are the cause, the reason being;
- Poverty; since the lady is so down in terms of economy she is forced to accept all conditions hence giving the other gender the opportunity to degrade the lady.
- Lack of awareness. When the the lady journalist is looking for the work , if such approaches happen to her she gladly accepts that the other journalists in the field went the same process hence giving a go ahead to the men.
The group came into an agreement whereby since the problem is in both side,solutions on how to handle was mentioned; the steps mentioned and agreed were;
- The ladies to have self drive.
- Motivating the young up coming ladies
- Awareness, for the example the crowd was happy to attend such a workshop
- The ladies to be encouraged to point out if she comes across such a scenario.
- The ladies to build their knowledge.
It has been such a successful and understanding moment shared. The day was concluded with a quote shared by one of the lady journalist mentioning to her fellow ladies that they should be strong and defensive or else as it is said “Don’t let someone get confortable with disrespecting you”
The chairperson closed the program, appreciating the crowd for participating an educating each other during the program.
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