Indian women journalists stand up for victims of sexual harassment

Women journalists in the country have also joined the #MeToo movement, with the Mumbai Press Club authoritatively backing them. The Club issued an official statement making its support very clear for the victims of sexual harassment from the media fraternity. The statement was issued by Lata Mishra, secretary, Mumbai Press Club, on its official Twitter handle.

The Mumbai Press Club stated that it backed all the women journalists who had revealed incidents where they had been sexually harassed by professionals from their fraternity.

Recently, two women accused journalist Mayank Jain of sexually harassing them. According to reports, Jain — who has been associated with many media firms, including Scroll.in and BloombergQuint — had been accused of similar misconduct last year too, following which he had expressed his apologies on Twitter.

Senior journalist and present resident editor of Times of India, Hyderabad, KR Sreenivas has been accused of misbehaviour in 2008, by journalist Sandhya Menon. She has also accused Gautam Adhikari, then editor-in-chief of DNA, Mumbai of similar sexual misconduct.

Following the many revelations of misbehaviour by women journalists on social media of late, the Club condemned such indecent behaviour with their women colleagues and also demanded severe punishment for the accused. They urged the concerned employers and law-enforcement agencies to take strict action.

According to the statement, the Press Club looks forward to discussing the matter at length and deciding on the future course of action.

The Club revealed that it was planning to seriously debate and deliberate on the subject at a formal event on a date that will be shared soon. It also requested its members to share their suggestions.