Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced criminal investigations into sexual harassment in corporate news outlets after multiple journalists said on social media they were the victim of abuse.
The deluge of sexual harassment complaints followed an announcement by one of the country’s top television networks, Caracol, which said on Friday that it had “immediately activated internal protocols and procedures established by law” in response to harassment claims against two of its hosts.
The station’s main news host, Jorge Alfredo Vargas, and senior sports commentator Ricardo Orrego were reportedly suspended after Labor Minister Antonio Sanguino announced inspections at the television network.
While this was ongoing, journalists and women who had abandoned journalism because of the abuse began posting their experiences at corporate media outlets on social media platform X.
Senior female journalists took the lead and began publishing testimonies of colleagues and former colleagues about sexual harassment at the country’s second largest network RCN, radio stations La FM and Blu Radio and newspapers.
Caracol Radio host Gustavo Gomez came under fire for taking photos of colleagues’ legs and posting them and inappropriate comments on social media.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said that it would investigate “the complaints on social media and multiple news media about sexual harassment in the work place” of journalists at Caracol.
The prosecution additionally announced the creation of a dedicated email address “to receive complaints, direct and coordinate any necessary investigations with a gender-sensitive approach, with the aim of providing full guarantees of protection to victims, safeguarding their fundamental rights, and preventing their revictimization.”
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