Challenging the system: a look inside a major investigation of harassment in Italy's media industry

Editor’s note: you can read the article below or listen to the audio version narrated by The Fix’s Veronika Babiciute.

From February to October 2024, freelance journalists Francesca Candioli, Roberta Cavaglià and Stefania Prandi interviewed more than 200 students and inside sources who, over the last ten years, had attended one of the ten journalism schools recognised by Ordine Nazionale dei Giornalisti, the body that regulates the journalism profession and its members in Italy. 

What has come to light shows how common it is for women journalists to experience abusive behaviour and sexual harassment even at the beginning of their careers. 

The investigation 

“Our investigation started after receiving three initial reports of gender discrimination and sexual harassment during informal conversations with journalism students and writers,” Prandi said, and “it seemed to us, and still does, that it was particularly serious that these events could occur already in the training stage, when the power imbalance between trainers and trainees is particularly pronounced.”

That is why they have decided to delve into it. 

Candioli, Cavaglià and Prandi first launched a survey to collect stories and information on cases of harassment and sexism in journalism schools and during affiliated internships, and then turned to student lists posted on school websites. Social media were also useful to “get in touch with the students and collect the stories of those who had expressed interest in talking to us,” Prandi explained. 

The results, published on the independent investigative media outlet IrpiMedia, are upsetting. As Cavaglià shared, “half of the respondents stated that they had witnessed or were aware of sexual and verbal harassment, attempted sexual violence, stalking, blackmail and gender discrimination. One third of the [respondents] described in detail the abuse they had experienced,” also providing names, screenshots, emails, documents and videos. According to the students, abusive behaviour was carried out by teachers, tutors and colleagues inside and outside the classrooms, as well as by journalists during their internships. “None of the people we heard had reported [to the police] what they had suffered.” 

Among the many stories collected, a member of the School of Journalism Broadcasting in Perugia told of a tutor who always sought physical contact with women students, with “unsolicited hugs”, touching or “winking”. Some members of the Walter Tobagi School of Journalism in Milan recounted the episode of a tutor who sat next to a student, started talking to her more closely and then touched her thigh. More than one trainee at the Urbino School reported having experienced or heard of harassment during their internship, with journalists making comments on their appearance and sending texts with sexual content. 

“Nearly 250 accounts are not a statistically valid sample,” Cavaglià said, “but if half of them have witnessed or experienced harassment, we can consider it a wake-up call.” 

Economic, legal and emotional issues to consider as freelance journalists 

Conducting an investigation, especially on sensitive topics such as harassment and abuse, can be difficult and requires being aware of potential risks and problems. 

First, the legal aspects. Cavaglià pointed out that they could rely on “the constant support from IrpiMedia and two lawyers who work with them.” She also explained that they offered the right of reply to the counterparts, interviewed the institutions involved in the investigation and asked them to reply “by email and/or in video calls that lasted up to an hour and a half each and/or by phone.” 

The emotional and psychological factor also needs to be taken into account when investigating such a sensitive topic, both for journalists and interviewees. For instance, not every person Candioli, Cavaglià and Prandi have contacted decided to open to them: in some cases they knew that some of those they approached were likely aware of cases of abuse, “but we tried not to insist as soon as we realised that the person we were talking to didn’t want to get into it. Some students preferred to put the past behind them, others didn’t consider appropriate to trust us. This is pretty normal in an investigation like this, especially when dealing with sensitive topics that could re-victimise people if they are not open to talking about it,” Prandi explained. 

For the journalists themselves, conducting this investigation was also tough.  Cavaglià said discussions with representatives of the institutions were particularly difficult: “We had to deal with long-serving journalists, almost all of them men, and we had to assert our authority.” Therefore, working on the investigation as a team “and knowing that we had the support from IrpiMedia was very helpful both on a practical and psychological level,” she observed. 

Finally, there is the issue of economic sustainability. Prandi describes this investigation as the kind of projects “that sometimes freelancers choose to do as a bet or investment for the future. Unfortunately, just publishing the investigation in Italy hardly covers months and months of work and this was the case for us. We knew that to make it economically sustainable we would have to take the gamble that it would work, that it would become popular, and then seek all the necessary funds. We plan to apply for grants and start crowdfunding in order to make the project sustainable and expand it. I allow myself to do jobs like this once/twice a year or so, because I think they are important from a civic perspective, I think they are necessary.” 

Although “Italian journalism is still characterised by sexism and patriarchy,” as Candioli put it, the impact of the investigation so far has been very good indeed, making it clear “that this is a good time in Italy to seriously address issues like these.”

In fact, “more than 50 media outlets, including mainstream Italian media (newspapers, websites and radio stations), independent publications, newsletters and podcasts have shared our investigation,” probably “thanks to the many female colleagues who have worked within their editorial team to relaunch it,” Candioli argued. 

A work in progress 

Also members of Espulse, a collective focused on investigating sexual harassment and abuse of power in Italian journalism, Candioli, Cavaglià and Prandi clearly stated that the aim of the investigation was not to “point the finger at anyone” in particular, nor to “re-victimise the students” who talk to them, but rather to examine the huge problem of harassment in the media industry in Italy. 

Prandi mentioned that “the only national research [study] available on harassment in journalism was published in 2019 and found that 85% of women journalists working in newsrooms said they had been sexually harassed at least once during their career. Almost 3% had been raped while 8% had experienced attempted sexual assault.” 

Another investigation conducted last year by Italian journalist Alice Facchini revealed how experiencing gender discrimination and harassment is also very common for freelance journalists. 

“The question we receive most often in interviews is ‘Why has no one reported’?,” Prandi said, but she believes the issue here is rather the opposite:

Instead of giving young women the responsibility to report, why do we not bother to monitor and intercept any abusers in schools and during internships?

“What are we doing to prevent this from happening? What more can we do? What can a member of a university, a school, an institution, do to improve things, individually and collectively? How can I support women students or, conversely, report behaviour that I feel is inappropriate to a colleague?” 

That is why Candioli, Cavaglià and Prandi decided to bring the stories they collected before the schools representatives and the regional and national bodies that regulate the journalism profession in Italy. Cavaglià revealed that “some schools have confirmed that they have received reports of harassment and sexism over the past ten years and have taken action,” while those who declared didn’t receive any reports “learned with shock of the cases” and “assured us that they would investigate the matter thoroughly.” 

In addition, “the regional bodies emphasised that they had limited room for action, but nevertheless committed themselves to addressing the issue with the schools, looking for possibilities to intervene. The president of the National Council of the Ordine dei Giornalisti, Carlo Bartoli, said that he had never received any reports on the matter, not even informally.” All the responses were included in the investigation and are available on IrpiMedia. 

However, as Candioli, Cavaglià and Prandi stated, the investigation is not over: the survey is still available to those who would like to share their stories and the Italian journalists want to expand and spread the results.

“For too long, harassment has been the norm: it is time for it to finally stop,” Cavaglià said. 

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