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Mediacorp investigating claim by CNA producer of colleague's sexist remarks

(Photo: Facebook screenshot via Alvinology)
(Photo: Facebook screenshot via Alvinology)

Mediacorp is investigating a claim by Channel NewsAsia (CNA) producer Juwon Park that a colleague made sexist remarks directed at her, the Singapore broadcaster said on Thursday (5 October).

“Mediacorp does not condone sexism in our workplace. We take a serious view to this matter and are investigating,” a spokesman told Yahoo News Singapore after the allegation appeared online.

In a Facebook post, Park, a producer at the finance show Money Mind, alleged that a colleague had said she could not be a presenter “because I have no boobs” and “girls shouldn’t be too smart for their own good” and that she “should act dumb”.

She reproduced screenshots from an alleged Whatsapp conversation with said colleague, who claimed “it’s how the industry works”. When pressed by Park about the comments regarding her body, the colleague supposedly apologised and claimed “I’m just being Australian”.

The screenshots and Park’s post were shared to a Hardware Zone forum and picked up by local blogs like Alvinology. Her post has since been made unavailable to the public.

A staff member at Mediacorp, who declined to be named, said he and his colleagues were shocked by Park’s claim, and did not expect that a colleague would say such a thing to her, “if it were indeed true”.

“While TV is indeed a visual medium, those in the industry would know that you need brains – not looks, or a good figure – to do the work. I feel sorry that she had felt hurt from the alleged remarks.” he said.

He added that he did not feel that there is sexism in the workplace. “Nobody has come to me to confide in me about feeling victimised by someone who is sexist. Nor have I heard of sexual harassment cases in the work place,” he said.

A former female staff member at CNA, who declined to be named, said nobody had ever made such remarks to her. “I never felt people judged me different because of my gender and I think opportunities wise, you get the same as the guys,” she told Yahoo News Singapore.

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