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Data collection

This study employed an online survey to examine the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment experienced by professionals working in media organisations across multiple regions. The research was conducted as a collaborative initiative between the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Women in News (WIN) and BBC Media Action. City St George’s, University of London served as the lead research partner responsible for research design oversight, ethical compliance and data analysis.

The study targeted 21 countries where WAN-IFRA WIN and BBC Media Action operate programmes across Africa, the Arab Region, South East Asia and Ukraine. The 2025 study builds on research conducted in 2020. Fifteen countries that participated in the 2020 study were surveyed again in 2025 to allow for longitudinal comparison. In addition, six countries were newly incorporated into the 2025 study: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Somaliland, South Sudan and Ukraine.

Before data collection, ethical approval for the research was obtained through City St George’s, University of London. Participation in the survey was voluntary and anonymous, and respondents understood that they could withdraw at any point before submission. The survey was publicised via WIN and BBC Media Action regional media networks, aiming to achieve a balance of respondents by gender, role and media organisation type. It was distributed online using Qualtrics.

The survey used in this study built on earlier tools developed through research collaborations between WAN-IFRA WIN and City St George’s, University of London. Before rollout, the survey was piloted in the participating regions with approximately 40 participants to test its clarity, relevance and functionality. Survey questions were developed in English and then translated to ensure accessibility for respondents. Translations were available in Amharic, Arabic, Bangla, Burmese, Bahasa and Ukrainian.

The survey comprised 33 closed questions and one open-ended question allowing respondents to provide additional comments. An introduction explained the purpose of the research and the voluntary nature of participation. One filter question confirmed that respondents had worked in the media industry within the previous two years and identified the country in which they currently worked.

Subsequent questions examined respondents’ perceptions of newsroom culture and gender equality using a seven-point scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Respondents were then asked about their experiences with different types of workplace sexual harassment, including verbal harassment, online harassment, physical harassment and rape. Participants who reported having experienced sexual harassment at work were asked additional questions about the organisational role and rank of the perpetrator, whether they had reported incident internally. Where applicable, the survey asked respondents their reasons for not reporting or the organisational response to reported sexual harassment. The survey also collected demographic information and asked respondents whether their organisation had a sexual harassment policy in place.

Participation in the survey was open to media professionals in the study countries, regardless of their gender or organisational hierarchy.

Once data collection was completed, the research team compiled and analysed responses. They used SPSS Statistics and Microsoft Excel for statistical analysis of the survey data to examine prevalence patterns, demographic distributions and workplace reporting behaviours across the sample.

Changes from the 2020 study

The 2025 WAN-IFRA WIN global survey builds on the original 2020 study. Wherever possible, the 2025 questionnaire repeated key questions from 2020 to enable direct comparison of results. But the 2025 survey included new questions to explore leadership attitudes, policy effectiveness, training impact and newsroom culture.

While the earlier study combined surveys with in-depth interviews, the 2025 edition focused on the quantitative survey but allowed space for respondents to add a qualitative comment on the topic of workplace sexual harassment if they wished.

Research ethics

Respondents were asked for their consent to participate in the survey, could skip any question they wished, and could withdraw from the study at any point during the survey. They were also signposted to support resources in their respective countries.

The research team handled data in accordance with the City St George’s, University of London’s privacy policy and international data protection standards. Responses were stored securely and accessible only to the research team. WIN and BBC Media Action internal review processes provided ethical oversight.

Definitions

This study designates any individual who has experienced sexual harassment as a survivor.

This study defines sexual harassment overall as unwanted and offensive behaviour of a sexual nature that violates a person’s dignity and makes them feel degraded, humiliated, intimidated or threatened. Within the survey, specific definitions for each type of sexual harassment discussed in this study were given to respondents as follows:

Sampling and data interpretation

The survey was open to anyone working in the media industry within the participating countries, with the primary eligibility criterion being that they had worked in the media sector within the previous 24 months. Respondents who did not meet these criteria were screened out of the survey.

The research team used multiple non-probabilistic sampling methods: snowball, convenience and self-selection. Links to the survey were published on social media platforms to reach wide audiences. In parallel, WIN and BBC Media Action reached out to their media partners and media associations to encourage participation and distribute the survey link within organisations, and through formal and informal journalism networks.

The aim was to capture the experiences of media professionals across different roles, organisation types and levels of seniority. Where sample sizes allowed, demographic information – including age, gender identity, and sexual orientation – was collected to support disaggregated analysis. These variables were not used as sampling criteria as the study was not specifically designed to examine sexual harassment through an intersectional lens. In some cases, sample sizes for certain groups, such as respondents identifying as gender non-conforming, were too small to support robust comparative analysis.

Where a given sample has an overall count of n <100, the absolute count of respondents is given rather than a percentage. Wherever findings are based on particularly small samples, this is caveated.