Even as people debate and argue whether certain behaviour, especially which involves unwanted sexual advances towards women, falls under the workplace sexual harassment ambit, one more journalist has come forward with her #MeToo story where she has accused a senior editor at Catch News of making unwanted advances towards her.
Silence was the complimentary breakfast that I forgot to eat when my gender was assigned to me and I have decided to share one of my many #MeToo stories pic.twitter.com/KlHW6x8BKm
— Shamita Harsh (@Shamitaharsh) October 16, 2018
Journalist Shamita Harsh took to Twitter to describe her story. She claims that during her time at Catch News, which was her first job, between June 2016 to April 2017, she was routinely harassed by a senior editor. Without naming him, she says that he would pass comments on her looks and make her feel uncomfortable. She describes that on more than one occasion she was offered drinks at workplace, which she declined since she was not comfortable.
She then says that on 16 January 2017, when the Catch News office shifted from Qutub Institutional Area to Greater Noida, and a lot of people had put in their papers, including her. However, she claims that this senior editor pulled some strings and stopped her transfer to Greater Noida, thereby allowing her to work from Qutub Institutional Area office. As a thank you, she says, he asked for a hug. She claims that she got this preferential treatment even though many of her colleagues who had actually requested for a transfer, were not attended to immediately.
Catch News is digital platform part of Rajasthan Patrika Group. In the course of the last few days, two women came forward and accused The Wire’s co-founder and founding editor Siddharth Bhatia as well as journalist Vinod Dua of sexual harassment. The #MeToo movement on social media has taken the country by a storm with many big industry names like Alok Nath, Rajat Kapoor, Varun Grover and comedians like Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, co-founders of All India Bakchod being accused of sexual misconduct. Journalists like Prashant Jha and film director Vikas Bahl and many, many more have been named as perpetrators of harassment.
