Guide to Creating SOP for Press Companies to Overcome Sexual Violence in the World of Work

A survey conducted by PR2Media and AJI Indonesia of 852 female journalists from 34 provinces in Indonesia showed that 82.6% (704) of respondents had experienced sexual violence throughout their journalistic careers.

The research, which was conducted from September to October 2022, asked female journalists’ experiences regarding various types of sexual violence, which occurred online and offline, in the office and outside the office, and when carrying out journalistic work (the research report is submitted in a separate document).

The types of sexual violence that were asked of the respondents in this research included sexual harassment and sexual assault. Sexual harassment (occurring offline and online) consists of sexually offensive or derogatory comments, body shaming (ridicule/negative comments about body shape), sexual and explicit text messages and audio-visuals, as well as catcalling (sexual harassment through verbal expressions in public places). Meanwhile, sexual assault (occurring only offline) consists of experiencing unwanted sexual physical touch, being forced to touch or serve the perpetrator’s sexual desires, and being forced to have sexual intercourse.

Of the 852 respondents, 57.2% of respondents stated that their office did not yet have a standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with sexual violence against female journalists. Meanwhile, 42.8% of respondents stated that their offices already had SOPs. These SOPs can be in the form of special SOPs for handling sexual violence or general SOP, such as an SOP for the protection of journalists, which contains aspects of handling sexual violence.