WDR: Scandal over sexual harassment is widening
It's supposed to be five cases - at least
A former foreign correspondent is said to have shown an intern in the hotel room pornography and to have written a colleague "clear mail". This man has since been suspended from duty. Now another "senior employee" has been released. This confirmed a WDR spokesman on demand of the "Bild" newspaper.
According to "mirror" but there have been other cases of sexual harassment. It is about a prominent TV journalist who is now retired, as well as a radio employee who is already on record for stalking, and is still always busy at WDR. Another suspected employee is a revisionist. All in all, at least five cases have been mentioned.
WDR did not take the allegations seriously?
In recent weeks, allegations have been made that the broadcaster did nothing or too little when several cases of sexual harassment became known.
To refute the allegations, WDR director Tom Buhrow has now appointed former EU Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies as special investigator. It should independently check the handling of the sender with the processing of sexual harassment. For this purpose, the SPD politician and former trade union chairperson (ÖTV) "should have unrestricted access to all information, processes and interlocutors."
"I am ready to take on this task and contribute to the elucidation of this difficult chapter," said Monika Wulf-Mathies, "because public service broadcasters should play a role model role in equality issues." And further:
I think it is right that the sensitivity to issues of sexual harassment in society has grown and that women are no longer forced to accept lewd remarks and actions or to suffer professional disadvantages.
The results will be published after completion of the study. In addition, WDR has commissioned a law firm to investigate further possible cases of sexual harassment.
The #MeToo debate is working
That the allegations of sexual harassment at the WDR publicly come to language, is certainly also a merit of the # MeToo debate. The discussion about sexual assault in the workplace started in October 2017 after the? New York Times? published an article about massive sexual abuse by media mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Since then, the discussion has been making waves worldwide. In Britain, for example, there were resignations of high-ranking members of government, in Austria the debate reached the ski sport, in Germany is determined against the director Dieter Wedel. It also became known that sexual violence was widespread even among aid organizations.
