Study: Most media-workplace harassment goes unreported

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

Sexual harassment remains a persistent feature of media workplaces worldwide, with nearly one in three people surveyed experiencing some form of harassment, according to a new multi-country study released Monday, May 25, by WAN-IFRA Women in News; City St George’s, University of London; and BBC Media Action.

The study draws on responses from more than 2,800 media employees, making it one of the largest datasets on sexual harassment in newsroom workplaces to date.

Respondents span a wide range of roles, including journalism, administration, HR, production, marketing, and management, offering a comprehensive picture of how harassment is experienced across media organizations.

Conducted across 21 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab region, Southeast Asia, and Ukraine, the 2025 study finds that, on average, 29% of media professionals in these countries reported experiencing sexual harassment.

That figure is down from 34% recorded in the organizations’ 2020 survey, though the researchers note the set of countries surveyed changed between the two studies, so the global figures may reflect differences in coverage as well as changes in reported experiences.

Across all genders, 69% of those who experienced harassment did not report it, continuing a longstanding pattern of underreporting found in earlier studies.

Where survivors reported incidents, organizations took action in 65% of cases, most often through limited or informal measures.

That headline figure, however, masks how uneven those responses were.

The study found that 35% of respondents who reported harassment said their organization took no action at all, while 51% said action was taken only “sometimes or mostly.” Just 14% said their employer “always” took action when harassment was reported — meaning consistent, reliable follow-through was the exception rather than the rule.

Fear of retaliation, lack of trusted reporting mechanisms, and low confidence in organizational response remain key reasons why harassment goes unreported, reflecting structural barriers to reporting cases and a lack of accountability and response mechanisms across media workplaces.

The survey covered 2,878 media professionals, including 1,630 women, 1,090 men, and 158 gender non-conforming respondents, drawn from countries across the four regions.

Progress remains slow and uneven

Globally, women are 2.4 times more likely than men to experience verbal sexual harassment and 1.8 times more likely to experience online sexual harassment.

Experiences of physical harassment and rape are lower but remain consistent threats.

A quarter of all respondents report instances of physical harassment, with 5% of women and 4% of men citing they are rape survivors.

The research also points to a persistent gender gap in participation and reporting.

Lower response and reporting rates among men suggest that sexual harassment is still widely perceived as primarily a women’s issue, despite its broader implications for newsroom culture, power dynamics, safety of journalists, and the overall integrity of journalism.

Regional disparities are stark

The research builds on earlier studies conducted in 2018 and 2020, expanding geographic coverage to countries not previously studied, including Ukraine, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan, and strengthening the global evidence base on sexual harassment in media workplaces.

Findings highlight significant variation across regions.

Prevalence rates remain highest in Africa (33%) and the Arab region (31%), compared with 19% in Southeast Asia and 12% in Ukraine, which was included in the study for the first time in 2025.

Lindsey Blumell of City St George’s, University of London, says: “Sexual harassment has a deeply negative impact on those who experience it and the general working atmosphere in newsrooms. Our research shows that no matter the type of harassment, experiencing it decreases job satisfaction, increases risk of leaving the industry, and many other negative mental and even physical consequences to victims/survivors. Underreporting sexual harassment reflects a lack of trust in reporting systems and signals an overall acceptance of violence in newsrooms.”

From evidence to action

The survey provides a valuable lens on how workplace cultures in media organizations have evolved over the past five years — and where change has stalled.

The findings, experts say, point to key areas where action is both urgently needed and possible: policies, training, support systems for survivors, and collective engagement.

Valeria Perasso, media development adviser at BBC Media Action, said tackling sexual harassment goes beyond protecting individuals and bears directly on how newsrooms are governed and how credible their journalism is.

Unsafe and unequal workplace cultures, she said, create structural barriers that limit who can participate, lead, and shape editorial decisions.

“Addressing sexual harassment is not only a matter of individual protection, but of newsroom governance and journalistic integrity,” Perasso said.

She said she hopes the report will inform organizational action and leadership practices within individual newsrooms and across the wider media sector, as well as policy and advocacy efforts aimed at building safer and more equitable media institutions.

Susan Makore, managing director of WAN-IFRA Women in News, said the scale of underreporting points to a deeper breakdown in workplace culture, trust, and accountability.

“When the majority of sexual harassment cases continue to go unreported, it signals a deeper failure of workplace culture, trust, and accountability,” Makore said.

Sexual harassment in media is not an isolated workplace issue, she said, but a structural barrier that shapes who feels safe to participate, stay, and lead in journalism.

Makore said addressing it requires more than policies alone, calling on media organizations to invest in sustained awareness-raising, training, and sensitization at all levels of the newsroom.

“Safer and more equitable media workplaces are essential to building stronger, more inclusive, and resilient journalism,” she said.

The study, which builds on earlier WAN-IFRA Women in News research dating to 2018, comes amid sustained global attention to safety and equity in journalism, issues that gained prominence in the wake of the #MeToo movement and that press-freedom groups increasingly link to who is able to enter and remain in the profession.

In-depth global, regional, and country-level findings, comparative data, mapped visualizations, and downloadable reports are available on the interactive website accompanying the study at sexualharassment.womeninnews.org/research.