Amman- 10 August 2021
On August 10, 2021, “Together Against Discrimination” virtual diploma covered sepcial considerations when conducting investigations and producing reports on sexual harassment and misuse of power in the workplace.
“Together Against Discrimination” training program extends over a period of 3 months, within the framework of the “I Will Not Stay Silent” project launched by ARIJ in partnership with the Facebook Journalism Project, Women in News / WAN-IFRA, the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), and SAFE, IREX, and supported by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office. The project aims at creating a safe, pluralistic, and diverse media working environment that is free of discrimination.
This 10th session was delivered by ARIJ’s human resources consultant, Hassan Jadallah, and facilitated by Besan Jaber, the project manager.
Jadallah started with the importance of confidentiality during investigations of sexual harassment. He also emphasized that incidents and complaints of sexual harassment must be investigated as soon as suspesions are communicated or reported to the HR team, even if an offcial complaint has been filed yet. Hence, giving such investigation a priority is also a must.
He highlighted the need to refer any loopholes discovered or revealed during investigations, to the administration in charge. Reporting these challenges, gaps and loopholes as areas for improvement help improve the overall performance at the workplace. In addition to that, giving attention to the physiological and mental health of the employees must include those who are not involved in the investigation, as the process of investigating harassment can affect the workplace negatively creating a sense of district and unsafety
Moving to investigations of corruption, Jadallah pointed out that the best practice is to maintain and strengthen prevention methods in the first place. These methods and policies must encourage and maintain transparency, accountability, and strict financial auditing.He explained that corruption is not just about theft, but it also includes bribery, money laundering, and favouritism.
“Together Against Discrimination” focuses on equipping participants with theoretical and practical hands-on knowledge to design and implement effective internal complaints mechanisms against various forms of misuse of authority in media institutions and general media working environments, such as fraud, corruption, harassment and hate speech, to permit stakeholders to best receive, respond, investigate and report any form of alleged complaints.
