*toxic newsroom alert"
#longthread
I have worked twice in Indian newsrooms. Once in the early 2000s and one recently. Sorry to report nothing has changed in the two decades. These newsrooms are as toxic as ever. Incl the othering of women esp senior journalists.
#longthread
I have worked twice in Indian newsrooms. Once in the early 2000s and one recently. Sorry to report nothing has changed in the two decades. These newsrooms are as toxic as ever. Incl the othering of women esp senior journalists.
I had recently joined @News9Tweets as a part-time consulting editor and my experience there was bizarre and toxic. From the word go they would try to work me over and beyond my hours - which I politely refused. Asking them to respect my hours.
The remote gig - although it paid peanuts - suited me because I was based in Uttarakhand for a while - researching a couple of stories for other clients. But owing to the Uttarakhand disaster over the dussehra break, I couldn't work for a few days. Duly informed everyone.
We had no power for three days or mobile signals. We were locked in. When services were restored I came back to a strangely hostile newsroom. No one would interact with me. The guy I reported to won't acknowledge me or respond to my emails and msgs. This went on for two days.
During which I sat doing nothing. Wondering what the hell was happening. It was then that I got in touch with this man's boss asking what was happening. He assured to look into it & later informed me that it has been fixed.
But the passive aggressive vibes continued unabated. And I decided to step down to secure my own mental health as it was triggering past trauma. It was getting stressful. I don't work well in hostile environments. No one can. Or should.
And then yesterday this guy began sending me bizzare msgs. Gaslighting me. Saying I self destructed. That I would be nowhere. I don't know what nowhere for him is but I'm 45 and I think I have achieved enough in my life without ever resorting to bullying team members.
And yes I do also have three major international awards to my name, hundreds of bylines in some of the world's most prestigious publications. At 23,I was the youngest editor&producer at BBC World Service in London. I also worked many years as a correspondent for TIME magazine.
I don't need certificates from men who have a quarter of my achievements. See the screenshot of msgs from his mad rant below. I am not revealing his name for a reason that I will write down below. 
Woman card because I asked his boss if they would have treated a male journalist with my kind of credentials this way. Of course not. They never would. He apologized to me and made the other guy apologize too ( that's why I am leaving his name out).
But I am still tweeting this out because I was not angling for an apology to satisfy my fragile ego. I am not a man. A wrap on the knuckle won't make this systemic problem go away. Indian newsrooms need to run their own gender sensitization campaigns.
Look at the tone of the msgs. And the apology msg. These men don't even know how to treat women colleagues with respect. They treat them like they treat the women in their households - with open or hidden disdain.
I have burnt many bridges - domestic and international - over the last 21 yrs. It's cos of a thing called SPINE. I don't care about the names they call me - that's part and parcel of not being a sheep.
I'll continue to highlight mistreatment of women journalists in Indian newsrooms through my own experiences as a warning to my peers&for women who will come after me. I urge other women to spk up too. If you don't, you are doing a disservice to women who will come after you.
I didn't want an apology. I wanted action to be taken against a systemic problem so that it didn't recur with anyone else because younger women are often reluctant to take these issues up fearing for their careers and rightly so.
This is workplace bullying &women face it way more than men across the world. Needless to add it happens mostly to senior women professionals. Harassment in the workplace has different names and we need to talk about all of it. Please talk about workplace bullying.
And if you are a male editor reading this and you consider yourself an ally then pls do know that being an ally means taking more proactive stands than just giving a stern talking to the perpetrator. It's no deterrent.
#threadends
#threadends
*rap
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