BBC charity fires six people for sexual misconduct, watching porn on work computers
International aid organisations have been in the spotlight after a news report accused Oxfam of covering up sexual misconduct by its workers.
BBC Media Action, a BBC charity, said it has fired six people for sexual harassment or for watching pornography on work computers, BBC reported on Wednesday.
BBC Media Action is an independent, international development charity that trains journalists and produces programmes across the world. It is not funded by the BBC licence fee, the report said.
The British charity said all the sacked employees were foreign nationals and that the incidents happened over the past 10 years, all overseas.
This comes as the spotlight is on international aid organisations after The Times reported earlier in February that Oxfam – one of Britain’s biggest charities – had covered up sexual misconduct by staff posted in Haiti in 2011.
Soon after, the United Nations Children’s Fund deputy executive chief Justin Forsyth resigned after accusations that he had sent staffers inappropriate text messages and commented on what young female employees were wearing. Children’s aid charity Plan International confirmed six cases of sexual abuse and child exploitation by staff or associates in 2016 and 2017.
Most recently, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that 21 of its staff members were either dismissed or have resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct since 2015.
BBC Media Action has received £70 million over the past five years from United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, which said it had been given no record of the sexual misconduct, the BBC report said.
“We have reviewed all cases in the last 10 years involving or potentially involving sexual misconduct,” a statement from the charity said. “Six such cases have been identified over this period, all of which were investigated.”
The charity said it found “no grounds” to take any action in two of these cases.
“In the remaining four, formal disciplinary action was taken. None involved beneficiaries and we are not aware of any child protection issues,” the statement said. “A total of six people were dismissed.”