Kamahl Santamaria, a veteran television journalist, was just 32 days into his job at New Zealand’s top broadcaster TVNZ when he resigned.
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| Kamahl Santamaria. Photo: ODT files |
Surprise gave way to shock as allegations about his inappropriate behaviour in the newsroom surfaced. Soon Mr Santamaria’s former colleagues at Al Jazeera, where he had worked for 16 years, began speaking out.
A BBC investigation – drawing on interviews with several current and former employees at Al Jazeera, and documentary evidence of inappropriate messages and staff complaints – has found several allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Santamaria in the broadcaster’s Doha newsroom. Some say he wasn’t the only one.
They also accuse the company of fostering a toxic work culture where complaints of harassment, sexism, bullying and racism largely go unaddressed.
Those who spoke to the BBC wished to remain anonymous because they feared it would affect their careers. Their names have been changed.
Mr Santamaria did not respond directly to the BBC. But he issued a public statement where he acknowledged previously reported allegations, saying some are “true, some missing crucial context, some outright lies and a rewriting of history”.
In response to the allegations made by the BBC, he admitted to and apologised for “behaviour that may have made anyone feel uncomfortable” and what he previously considered to be “flirtatious, over-friendly, ‘just a bit of banter’, or simply within the bounds of acceptable in the prevailing newsroom culture was, in fact, not”.BBC
