If there are no clear protection mechanisms, sexual harassment becomes a systemic risk in newsrooms

Preliminary results of the study “Women in the Media” confirm the existence of a gap between declarative support and actual institutional responses to sexual harassment in newsrooms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia.

"I didn’t know what else to do or how to act without it turning out that I was the problem. I didn’t report it to anyone because my superior also made certain comments toward women… and I didn’t even know who I could turn to.” (excerpt from a regional survey response).

Fear of being blamed, distrust in superiors and the perception that they themselves are part of the problem, as well as the structural lack of clear reporting channels and institutional protection, are the reasons why the quoted media worker from Croatia decided not to report sexual harassment within the newsroom.

Many other respondents in the regional survey on the position of women in the media cited similar reasons. The survey was conducted by Mediacentar Sarajevo together with Zavod Krog and  Slovene Association of Journalists, Trade Union of Croatian Journalists, and Trade Union of Culture, Art and Media "Nezavisnost" from Serbia as part of the project “Ending workplace harassment in the media industry in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina - Women in the Media”.

Although the decision to report sexual harassment is very often linked to narratives of courage, the reaction of a person at risk should not be viewed as such a test, but rather as a reflection of institutional safety and the culture within the environment.

Sexual harassment widespread and deeply rooted in newsroom work culture

The results of the research on the position of women in the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia confirmed that attacks, discrimination, harassment and other rights violations are a widespread problem. The full study will be available in April 2026.

Out of 606 women media workers who participated in the regional survey, four out of five respondents (78.38 %) confirmed that they had experienced some form of gender-based violence during their work, including various forms of rights violations and discrimination. Of that percentage, sexual harassment in various verbal and non-verbal forms accounts for 65.84 %.

According to Nataša Kovačev, who participated in conducting the research in Serbia, sexual harassment stands out as a problem that is “significantly widespread, yet almost never discussed, nor are the mechanisms for protection.”

Survey results show that at least every second respondent in each of the countries mentioned had been exposed to one or more forms of unwanted contact that causes discomfort, fear or humiliation and contributes to an unsafe work environment.

At the regional level, the data on prevalence were even higher, as roughly two out of three respondents confirmed that they had experienced sexual harassment during their careers. Among them, almost one third (29.87 %) confirmed that they had experienced physical sexual harassment in the form of unwanted touching, forceful contact, attempted rape or rape in the workplace.

The results also confirm that sexual harassment in the region most often occurs within newsrooms themselves, with colleagues being the most frequent perpetrators, followed by superiors.

Internal mechanisms mostly do not exist or are not accessible and transparent

Newsrooms should be the first line of defense for media workers against attacks, discrimination and other forms of rights violations. Instead, for many women workers they are the primary place where rights are violated. According to international standards on workers’ and women’s rights, as well as the regulations in the mentioned countries, establishing relevant protection systems is a legal obligation.

Maja Sever, president of the Croatian Journalists’ Union and the European Federation of Journalists, notes that formal mechanisms within newsrooms are a legal obligation in Croatia under the Labour Act. Every media company with 20 or more employees must appoint one or two persons authorized to receive and resolve complaints related to the protection of workers’ dignity.

“The procedure and measures for protection against harassment and sexual harassment must be regulated by internal workplace rules, a collective agreement or an agreement with the workers’ council. Upon receiving a complaint, the employer or the appointed person must examine it and take measures,” says Maja Sever.

However, she explains that formal mechanisms are not established in all newsrooms, and employees in the media sector often do not know which channels are available, whom to contact or how the procedure works in practice.

Researcher Tjaša Turnšek describes a similar discrepancy between formal obligations and the actual situation in newsrooms in Slovenia. She states that the legally prescribed obligation of employers—to introduce internal rules against harassment and appoint confidential persons to receive complaints—is often not respected in practice. She emphasizes that “implementation is inconsistent and largely symbolic.”

The results of the regional research confirm that self-regulatory mechanisms for protection against discrimination, violence and sexual harassment exist in only a limited number of newsrooms in the region. The majority of respondents (55.61 %) were not familiar with such documents or explicitly confirmed that no internal document formally regulating this area existed in the newsrooms where they had recently been employed.

Internal mechanisms often inaccessible, merely formal, and not focused on prevention

Only in Serbia did a majority (56.90 %) of respondents confirm that at least one such document existed within the newsrooms where they had recently worked. However, even existing mechanisms often function only as a dead letter on paper.

Analyzing the research results in Serbia, Nataša Kovačev explains that “internal mechanisms for the prevention of and protection from sexual harassment either do not exist in newsrooms, or they are discussed so little that most employees are unaware of them.”

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a significantly smaller share of respondents—less than one third—confirmed the existence of such a document. Journalist Arijana Saračević Helać described internal protection mechanisms against sexual harassment in Bosnian newsrooms as rarely established and often reduced to a formality, since “in practice the procedures are often insufficiently developed, employees are not adequately informed about them, and trust in their impartiality and effectiveness is low.”

Most respondents in the regional survey, in all countries, believe that their media company—or the companies where they recently worked—do not implement any measures to prevent attacks and harassment in the workplace.

In line with these findings, Tjaša Turnšek (Slovenia) emphasizes that protection mechanisms within newsrooms are predominantly reactive rather than preventive, and fail to build trust among employees. In practice, Nataša Kovačev notes that in Serbia these gaps are often filled by journalists’ associations, while newsrooms themselves do not participate in the process of providing support.

The availability of response mechanisms to cases of harassment and attacks, such as mediation and disciplinary procedures, was confirmed by about half of participants only in Serbia and Slovenia—though even there their implementation was mostly viewed as partial.

Based on her experience working on such cases in Croatia, Maja Sever notes that these measures in practice often fail to protect the victim, due to a tendency to keep sexual harassment cases within the newsroom, where the protection system largely depends on the will and sensitivity of management. As a result, “cases of sexual harassment often come down to one person’s statement against another’s, which further discourages reporting.”

Distrust in internal protection and low reporting rates

The research also shows a high level of distrust toward internal protection mechanisms and a very small number of reports. The lowest share of reports—relative to the number of incidents and compared with other rights violations—occurs precisely in cases related to sexual harassment.

Tjaša Turnšek (Slovenia) emphasizes that the number of reports is influenced by the normalization of sexual harassment within newsrooms, while Arijana Saračević Helać (BiH) confirms that “harassment within the newsroom still carries a greater degree of silence and discomfort.”

In addition to social stigma, women often do not report incidents because they lack confidence that the system will protect them. Arijana Saračević Helać (BiH) notes that newsroom culture is gradually changing under the influence of global initiatives and regional research that has opened space for public discussion. However, she emphasized that changes are “slower in practice than in discourse,” and that “a gap between declarative support and real institutional response still exists.”

She stresses that “opening this topic is extremely important, especially in the context of the media sector which publicly advocates for human rights while simultaneously facing serious internal challenges.”

Toward zero tolerance for harassment

Maja Sever (Croatia) explains that positive practice includes establishing clear and publicly accessible procedures, appointing trained and confidential persons, creating options for submitting complaints outside the immediate hierarchy, and ensuring clear protection measures against retaliation toward the complainant.

She emphasizes that the key to positive practice is the genuine willingness of management to protect the victim and sanction the perpetrator, without relativizing the problem and without further stigmatizing the complainant.

“Without clear protection mechanisms and transparency, it is difficult to expect fear to disappear completely,” says Arijana Saračević Helać (BiH), emphasizing the need to build an organizational culture in which “zero tolerance for harassment is truly applied, and not merely declarative.”

The systemic problem of sexual harassment points to the need for regional cooperation and highlights the importance of adopting internal regulations against sexual harassment in newsrooms, or guidelines for newsrooms. Tjaša Turnšek (Slovenia) stresses that creating guidelines and shared regional standards will contribute to “greater accountability, stronger support for victims and the establishment of a preventive culture in newsrooms.”

The regional working group for drafting the Rulebook against sexual harassment, which brings together members from all four countries, represents an effort to address the systemic risk that sexual harassment poses to media work, and to ensure that reporting sexual harassment becomes the responsibility of institutions to respond properly and provide protection—rather than a burden placed on individuals.

Based on article by Lamija Kovačević (Mediacentar Sarajevo), you can read the entire article here.

 This text was prepared as part of the project "Ending workplace harassment in the media industry in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina - Women in the Media" with the financial support of the European Union.

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