Employees who feel sexually abused must come to us, media executives say.
A sexist culture among our employees? No.
Several managers in the Danish media landscape are now responding to the much- publicized letter about inappropriate behavior signed by 701 women .
They all take the situation seriously and will try to create some framework where women can speak out, but they see no definite cultural change in need.
I have spoken to one of the initiators of the letter and asked if there is a sexist culture on TV2. Based on that conversation, I have to conclude that it is not there in general. We do not have a sexist culture, neither in the news department nor in the group, says news director at TV2 Mikkel Hertz.
The message from the 701 women is: “It happened once. It still happens”. The letter should be seen as a statement of support for TV host Sofie Linde, who recently used her speaking time as host of the ‘Zulu Comedy Galla’ to focus on sexism and inequality in the media industry.
Here, the now 30-year-old Sofie Linde highlighted an example from a Christmas lunch when she was 18 years old and had just started working at DR .
– This big TV cannon comes up to me, grabs my arm and says to me: “If you do not go out and suck my cock, then fucking I will ruin your career”.
DR boss: Embarrassing
On TV2, Mikkel Hertz acknowledges that there is room for improvement, and that it is concretely about creating a much clearer and safer framework so that the rules can actually be enforced .
– The individual must at all times be able to say “hey, here goes my limit”. You can not make a collective boundary when you are out in the things that can be discussed. But everyone must be able to say no without fear that it will have consequences for the job, or that you will be branded as “her the sour one”, says Mikkel Hertz:
