What Legacy Are We Leaving Behind: Power, Violence and Silence in Newsrooms

In Succession, HBO’s acclaimed series that has already made its way onto lists of the greatest television shows of all time, the youngest son of media mogul Logan Roy sexually harasses Geri, the general counsel of his father’s media corporation, Waystar RoyCo. He repeatedly sends her photographs of his genitals in various situations: at his mother’s wedding, in the middle of business meetings, whenever the thought occurs to him. Geri, played by J. Smith-Cameron, makes it clear to Roman, played by Kieran Culkin, and her godson, that his behaviour is unacceptable. Yet from his highly privileged position, he neither can nor wants to hear her.

Smith-Cameron captures both Geri’s discomfort and her uneasy restraint. Roman, together with his older brother and sister, is competing to take over his father’s media empire. She does not want to risk the wrath of the heir apparent and, consequently, her own position within the industry. The discomfort continues until Roman accidentally sends the photograph intended for Geri to his own father, in the middle of a meeting. Only then does the harassment stop. The departing media mogul puts an end to it, while Geri coldly distances herself from Roman.

It is an instructive moment in Succession, a vivid illustration of the dynamics of (dis)empowerment. It is also a fictional representation of something that the research conducted within the framework of the »Women in the Media« project identified as an extremely widespread practice.

A consortium of researchers from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, spent months investigating the issue. Three authors – Denisa Sarajlić, Selma Zulić Šiljak and Lamija Kovačević from Mediacentar Sarajevo – ultimately produced an analysis that became a solid foundation for further project activities.

The project is primarily implemented with the co-financing of the European Union through the CERV programme – Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values – and the research revealed the shocking scale of harassment and violence experienced by women working in the media. From unwanted sexual contact, trolling and online abuse, to direct death threats because of journalistic work and physical attacks in the street while carrying out their professional duties, the research went far beyond its initial scope and expectations.

What was originally envisioned as an analysis of around twenty pages developed into a comparative overview of almost eighty pages documenting the alarming situation. Three separate national reports were also published for Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia.

The summer holidays have passed and the new school year has begun, but for many women, violence and harassment in the workplace have not stopped. Even if they did not experience it during the hot summer months, many have increasingly feared it as their holidays came to an end.

Since September is traditionally a month of revisiting and reviewing what has been learned, the project’s communication team felt it was important to revisit what the research has revealed, what activities have been carried out and what we are continuing to do to address this enormous problem.

The wider project team in all four countries is genuinely committed to this work. We did not conduct the research simply to publish it and then forget about it. The awareness raising campaign is designed as a tool to make the wider public aware that this problem exists.

During a semi-structured interview, one journalist put it rather strikingly:

»We work in a profession where we fight for everyone’s rights, except our own.«

And the labour and human rights of female journalists, as well as editors, presenters, editors, camera operators, secretaries, proofreaders, costume designers, make-up artists and the many other professionals who keep the media industry running, are regularly violated.

The scientific research analysis »Women in Media: Mapping the Patterns of Workplace Harassment in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina« is the starting point of the project. Written in English, it is publicly available on the project website.

Previous research had been partial and methodologically narrow, so we decided to take a comprehensive approach to the problem. The research revealed how widespread violations of labour rights are. The most common violations concern the right to rest and rights established by employment contracts.

Rapid, almost daily changes in the media environment silence women working in the sector. Out of fear of retaliation and losing their jobs, most do not report violations of their rights. More than 40% of respondents said that the most frequent violations occur at the beginning of their careers. This is also when tolerance towards the violation of rights is established as something normal.

A gender pay gap was also identified.

Newsrooms are largely described as toxic workplaces where a culture of abuse and harassment prevails. As many as 78.38% of respondents had experienced some form of gender-based violence, while 65.84% had experienced sexual harassment. One third of respondents had experienced sexual harassment involving physical contact. The perpetrators were most often colleagues and superiors.

Women are discriminated against in the allocation of assignments, and are judged according to the same principle. While men in journalism are assessed primarily on the quality of their work, women working in the media are often judged on the basis of their appearance, clothing, attractiveness and private lives. They are pushed towards »lighter« topics.

Burnout has reached epidemic proportions and represents a systemic problem. Many women seek psychological support themselves or leave the profession and toxic working environments altogether in order to protect their mental health.

The research also showed that fewer than 10% of women working in the media in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia report attacks and violence. Protection and prevention mechanisms are largely »dead letters on paper«, where they exist at all. The comparative research similarly identified fear of retaliation, lack of trust in reporting procedures and weak enforcement as major reasons why workplace violations remain significantly underreported.

For precisely this reason, the project’s interdisciplinary expert team developed a comprehensive Rulebook on the Prevention of Sexual and Other Forms of Harassment in Newsrooms. It has been made available as a model for media organisations across the region to help them establish mechanisms for protecting all workers in the workplace.

The Rulebook provides both preventive and responsive measures to address all forms of violence and harassment affecting employees, including people involved in recruitment processes, volunteers and those working with media organisations on a freelance basis. It is publicly available on the project website and the project advocates for its adoption by media organisations. The Rulebook is intended to strengthen prevention, improve trust in reporting and complaint-handling procedures, and contribute to changing the culture of silence within media organisations.

This autumn, the awareness raising campaign is entering its second phase. Through strategic communication around important dates, we will continue to raise awareness among media professionals and the wider public.

The Trade Union of Croatian Journalists and the partner organisations – Mediacentar Sarajevo, Trade Union of Culture, Art and Media »Nezavisnost«, the Slovenian Association of Journalists and the lead partner Zavod Krog – will continue communicating the research findings, advocating for the implementation of the Rulebook and empowering women working in the media with a clear message:

»Not in My Newsroom!«

At the same time, we will continue drawing public attention to the issue under the campaign slogan:

»Power Does Not Give You the Right.«

Our goal is for the legacy of this project to be empowered and informed media workers, a stronger culture of accountability, wider implementation of the Rulebook across the region, and lasting progress in a profession that once represented a significant part of the middle class but is now struggling for survival.

American photojournalist James Nachtwey has offered one of the most powerful definitions of journalism. He says:

»Change cannot happen until we identify what’s wrong. I believe that journalism is a service industry and the service we provide is awareness.«

Awareness – both in society at large and within the profession itself.

The original version of this article was published by Emil Čančar (Trade Union of Croatian Journalists) and is available here.

Photo: Illustration generated by AI (Google Gemini) / Mock-up inspired by the series Succession