Complaints of sexual harassment against two well-known presenters unleash a MeToo in Colombian journalism
A robust motion of journalists and presenters who’ve denounced sexual harassment has gained power this weekend in Colombia. With the hashtags #YoTeCreoColega and #MeTooColombia, tons of of ladies have posted messages of help on their social networks after Caracol Televisión made public that it has activated authorized protocols to guard ladies who reported having been victims of sexual harassment by two journalists and presenters of the channel.
The director of Noticias Caracol, Juan Roberto Vargas, learn an editorial this Sunday in the information program in which he assures that the channel is on the aspect of the victims. “For Caracol it is a painful fact, for me as a director, it is a sad fact. But it is also a fact where determination, decency and rigor have to be demonstrated,” mentioned the journalist in the morning broadcast of the Blu Radio station, from the identical journalistic home. “Here we are not judges, but we are not spectators either.”
The information has not made public the names of the reported journalists, though there are a number of allegations on social networks. The presenter Mónica Rodríguez, who labored on the personal channel with the very best ranking in the nation, was one of the primary to talk out. “Until they got involved with someone who also had power relations and that’s why they couldn’t cover it up. Until the pot was finally uncovered for her and for everyone else… and until those and many other harassing characters are known. Let them tremble,” she wrote.
In dialogue with this newspaper, Rodríguez, who has been among the many leaders of the initiative to compile complaints, explains that they intend to supply a confidential and secure channel for victims to share their testimonies. “We are receiving the support of a legal team that will be in charge of analyzing each case and guiding victims on the available legal routes.” The journalist doesn’t rule out that a number of of these complaints can be delivered to the eye of the Prosecutor’s Office.
The #YoTeCreoColega initiative additionally has the help of UN Women and acknowledged NGOs equivalent to Sisma Mujer and the Casa de la Mujer of Bogotá. According to Rodríguez, many of the victims are younger journalists or media practitioners. “They are women who are in a state of defenselessness and who do not know how to act for fear of losing their practice, their job or their credibility if they come forward.” The communicator, who has identified a number of of these instances, factors out that a number of of the episodes happen throughout journeys or protection. “They feel safer away from other watchful eyes.”
Another of the journalists who has narrated her testimony on social networks is Juanita Gómez, from Revista Semana and who additionally labored for the information program Noticias Caracol. “The advice I would give to the Juanita of 2015 in this international coverage is that certain behaviors of some “sacred cows” in her work are not okay. I would tell her that having to get rid of a journalist/presenter by force, several times and pushing, so that he does not kiss her in an elevator is not normal and should never have happened,” he wrote in his X account.
Lina Tobón, a sports activities journalist, additionally reported on her account that she was a sufferer of harassment. In a thread on his social networks, he mentioned that, in 2022, a higher-ranking colleague touched his face and chest. “The rest of the day the insinuations escalated, to the point of touching a logo on the chest of my shirt, with some comment about how my clothes fit.” According to the communicator, she later suffered different episodes of office harassment and submitted her resignation to the corporate.
The complaints which are identified in an important information program in Colombia have additionally revived the case of Hollman Morris, supervisor of the RTVC Public Media System. The allegations against him had been made public since 2019, and embrace accusations of sexual harassment and psychological abuse made by 4 ladies, together with former official Lina Castillo, who now faces legal proceedings for libel and slander filed by Morris. Added to that is the testimony of journalist María Antonia García de la Torre, who reported an episode that occurred in Madrid in 2011.
Against Morris, in truth, one other group of journalists has viralized the #NoToThePactOfSilencewith which they state that a number of of their complaints have been filed and, now, it’s the ladies complainants who face legal proceedings. “Impunity against gender-based violence is the responsibility of a justice system that has not yet committed to the eradication of this phenomenon,” reads a assertion that has been disseminated via social networks.
In Colombia, complaints of sexual harassment in work environments proceed to face obstacles to reaching justice. In the office, the Ministry of Labor has warned that harassment complaints are usually concentrated in sectors with marked hierarchical relationships, such because the media. the identical Ombudsman, Iris Marínhas joined the decision and posted the message in help of the reporting journalists. The Minister of Labor, Antonio Sanguino, additionally introduced inspection and surveillance work in Noticias Caracol “to find out the conditions of the workers there.”
The electronic mail that the journalists have created to obtain complaints of sexual harassment in the Colombian media is: yotecreocolega@gmail.com. Johana Fuentes, one of the ladies who leads the initiative, assures that “it is a safe and confidential space to receive testimonies of harassment, abuse of power and gender violence within the journalistic practice.” The dialogue begins to settle, this time, inside the newsrooms themselves.
