Female
Journalist, harassed by colleagues
By: Rani Wahidi
Sharing profession with those non
serious, unprofessional and so call
journalists is really very shameful, the way they catcalled , bullied and
asked so many stupid questions in a recent event is unacceptable. I happened to
be only female Journalist under the roof in an event of public hearing of the senate standing committee on law and justice on
5 December 2019 Serena hotel Quetta Baluchistan. The event was attended by
people from different walk of levies including lawyers, activists as well as
traders.
#MeToo and #HearMeToo campaign
are playing havoc in so many countries, in social media and mainstream
channels, but situation on the ground continues to go from bad to worse, harassment
in every field continues to happen unchecked and media and journalists are no exception;
as we all know, harassment on workplace law exists, and many cases are registered too, but slow process of curt is painful for
victim, as witnessed, Former PTV anchor Ms.
Tanzeela Mazhar and Ms. Yashfeen Zafeer,
who have harassed by Mr.Agha Masood Shorish PTV Current Affairs Director on
different time, are pending for many years.
Male journalists are in dire need
of training and awareness on work place harassment
because they don’t know how to work with female collages. On one hand there are
less numbers of Female journalists in field, on the other hand, they continuously
having been harassed by male collages.
Though you find harassment of
women in almost every field but harassment of the female journalists by male
colleague takes another dimension, there is specific mindset exist in journalist
fraternity, that they somehow can have leverage of things to do and they are some
kind of privileged, with this mindset, harassment of women by the colleague
take to next stage, they think that they can do anything and get away with it.
In male dominant society like
Pakistan women face so many hardships to perform their duty in a proper way; especially
female journalist have to face tremendous hurdles while charring out their
duties. While all media houses are run
by male, and most of them do not have proper degree of journalism and less
sensitized towards gender issues, things become equally difficult for women
journalist both in office and on the field. This grave situation create so many
difficulties for those girls and women who studied this profession and invested
so many years to break glass ceilings and pursue Journalism and worked day and
night to stand on their feet and make a career as journalist.
Published in WomemShade Magazine December
