UGANDA BROADCASTING CORPORATION FEMALE STAFFS ARE CONTEMPLATING INDUSTRIAL ACTION OVER SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Pervasive sexual harassment has become increasingly evident in several Ugandans newsrooms and the media industry in general.

Sources knowledgeable about what takes place at the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) have intimated to us that a section of female journalist at the national broadcaster station are threatening to lay down their tools over what the they claim is unbearable sex advances from their bosses in exchange for jobs.

Several women say that a one Hector Brown, the director and producer at the station, sexually harassed and acted inappropriately toward female journalists, they accused Hector of openly discussing their sex lives, often talking about sex during work, touching them inappropriately, sending them Whatsapp massages detailing sex positions, showing naked woman, a photo of his erect penis and assessing female employees’ physical appearances.

Another journalist said that her boss would demand to sleep with her whenever they left work in the evening. “He would pester me with calls demanding to have sex with him, and when I refused. I got my termination letter immediately,” she said.

A one Julie said that his editor would walk in the corridor, look at her chest and openly tell her how beautiful her breasts were. ”He would demand to touch them; I was still young and could not raise my voice against him. Eventually I had to quit to my village in Hoima. I could not stomach it anymore.”

Source also revealed that the absence of senior women in the organisation with the current employment of a young incompetent Human resource manager has worsened the situation giving no room for the female Journalist grievances to be attended to.

Efforts to speak to UBC Managing Director Winston Agaba proved futile. However in other cases, journalist voiced serious concerns that some of the highly qualified staffs working on high-risk assignments like in conditions where the likelihood of physical harm (death, injury or serious illness are paid less, compared to their counterparts who are mostly close relatives of their senior bosses, they often work without contracts, they claim that cleaners and gatekeepers at the organization earns a better pay than an average journalist.

On several occasions some journalists have gone without pay for some months, others are not given weekend and public holiday allowances for some years while others are seen signing money on a daily basis; they have never been given annual leave leading to journalists suffering from depression as a result.

Most recently, the television station was given 2billion shillings to get involved in the fight against Covid-19, however no journalist at the station have either received any mask, or sanitizer yet. It is mandatory for each and everyone to wear face mask, ’as earlier said by president Museveni, a situation that is leaving many journalist at a risk of contracting corona virus. 

Last year UBC had been embroiled in a crisis after several of its managers were suspended for theft having masterminded a fraud where over 100 ghost workers were involved on payroll and alleged corruption in connection to a Shs3.6 billion sponsorship deal between UBC and Airtel to air the 2014 football World Cup finals. This prompted the then Minister of Information and National Guidance Hon Frank Tumwebaze to set up a committee to review the allegations of mismanagement in UBC following uproar from the stations staffs. It seems the committee’s findings were not implemented to steer a lasting solution into the television station.

While the existence of sex monsters is a barely hidden fact among many media houses, little has been done in the past to put it in perspective and especially by talking to the victims many of whom chose to suffer in silence or quit the newsroom altogether. However the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Ms Judith Nabakooba, recently while Speaking on the commemoration of the World Press Freedom Day on Sunday, May 3, 2020, vowed to engage media owners on the issue of enhancing salaries for journalists, as well as addressing the sexual harassment of the female journalist something she said she was going to address very urgently.