Women working in Sierra Leone’s media industry experience significantly higher levels of sexual harassment than their male counterparts, according to findings contained in a 2025 report published by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Women in News, BBC Media Action, and City St George’s, University of London.

The report, which examined sexual harassment in media workplaces, found that female media professionals surveyed in Sierra Leone reported experiencing verbal, online, and physical sexual harassment at roughly twice the rate of men, with online and verbal harassment identified as the most common forms.

According to the study, overall rates of sexual harassment in Sierra Leone’s media sector stood at 27 percent in 2025, lower than the Sub-Saharan African average of 33 percent. However, the findings reveal a major gender gap in the prevalence of harassment.

The report states that approximately 54 percent of women surveyed had experienced verbal sexual harassment at least once during their careers, compared to 26 percent of men.

Related News

Online sexual harassment emerged as the most common form of workplace harassment among respondents. The study found that 57 percent of women reported experiencing online sexual harassment at least once, compared with 32 percent of men.

Researchers further noted that women were more likely to face repeated incidents of online harassment. Nineteen percent of female respondents reported experiencing between two and four incidents, while 11 percent said they had experienced more than five incidents. Among male respondents, the figures were four percent and two percent respectively.

The survey also revealed disparities in experiences of physical sexual harassment. While such incidents were less common overall, women were more than twice as likely as men to report being affected. Twenty-one percent of women surveyed said they had experienced physical sexual harassment, compared with nine percent of men.

Cases of rape in the workplace were reported to be rare among respondents. However, researchers noted that male and female participants reported similar rates of workplace rape, with four percent of men and five percent of women indicating they had experienced such incidents.

The study was based on responses from 298 media professionals across Sierra Leone who participated through an online questionnaire distributed via WAN-IFRA Women in News and BBC Media Action networks. Participants included 138 women, 145 men, seven gender non-conforming individuals, and eight respondents who chose not to self-describe their gender identity.

The report also examined reporting patterns and institutional responses to sexual harassment complaints. It found that employers generally took limited action when incidents of online sexual harassment were reported. In most cases, the response involved issuing warnings to perpetrators, accounting for seven of the 13 cases reported.

Researchers observed that the majority of men and women who experienced physical sexual harassment did not report the incidents to their employers. Among men, the most commonly cited reasons for not reporting were the belief that the incident was not serious and concerns about losing their jobs. Women provided a broader range of reasons for remaining silent.

In the 12 cases of physical sexual harassment that were reported to employers, organisations most commonly responded by warning perpetrators, which occurred in four cases, while police were informed in three instances.

The report further highlighted differences in reporting rape cases. Although the number of reported incidents was small, four out of five male victims said they informed their employers, compared with only one out of six female victims.

According to the findings, women cited fears of not being believed, losing their jobs, suffering negative career consequences, facing retaliation, and in some cases believing the incident was not serious enough, as reasons for not reporting workplace rape.

Researchers acknowledged that this was the first time the survey had been conducted in Sierra Leone, meaning there was no previous national dataset available for comparison.

The Sierra Leone findings form part of a wider 2025 international study on sexual harassment in media workplaces, covering 21 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab region, Southeast Asia, and Ukraine. The study examined the experiences of women, men, and gender non-conforming media professionals and sought to provide evidence on the prevalence of sexual harassment within newsrooms and media organisations.