Ethics top priority at Asia media investors' summit

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Asia has avoided the recent spate of entertainment and media sexual harassment scandals rippling through the US and Europe.

But the inaugural Media Investors’ Summit conference in Singapore on Thursday set money aside and made ethics its top priority.

“One of the objectives for SAAVA is to encourage an ethical approach to doing the business that we do. Everything that was addressed by our speakers was relevant and was an elephant in the room,” Ling Teo, director of Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association told CGTN Digital. "No better time than now. These issues have not been dealt with sufficiently."

Teo served as one of the co-organizers, along with noted Singapore producer Chan Gin Kai and film financier and producer Justin Deimen of Aurora Media Group.

Producer Justin Deimen; Ling Teo, director of SAAVA and noted Singaporean producer Chan Gin Kai, co-organizers of the Media Investors' Summit in Singapore. / SAAVA

Moral mayhem has been highlighted in recent weeks since the Harvey Weinstein outrage, and a continued wave of sexual harassment revelations happening across the globe in the media and entertainment industries. The latest bombshell being US media outlet NBC's "Today" show host Matt Lauer being fired on Tuesday after sexual harassment allegations surfaced against him.

Organizers for the summit suggest that Asia has numerous other areas to address, as well. They include stuntmen dying on set, a culture of overwork, animals tortured for the sake of entertainment, sexist jokes, racist jokes and glorified violence.

Breaking the silence

Asia has been left out of the plethora of scandals being exposed globally. Many believe it is because of the Asian culture's preference for societal harmony, rather than an actual absence of abuse.

But that was until Sreyashi Sen, founder and managing director of Darpan, a Singapore-based film distribution and production company, revealed her own experience with harassment.

Sreyashi Sen, founder and managing director, Darpan film distribution and production company in Singapore. / Sreyashi Sen

“In Asia, we don’t talk about it much. We sort of swept it under the rug, even now,” she said. “The subservience of women in a patriarchal society makes it where women don’t speak up because they are going to be humiliated. Silence is more clear in Asia.”

Sen read her essay on sexual harassment at the summit, detailing a personal encounter of being woken by a business partner at 2 a.m. asking what color underwear she was wearing. As Sen detailed the horrid incident, she also exposed a number of gropings and lewd photo messages she had received.

“The whole feeling that you have the right to ask a woman inappropriate questions,” Sen told CGTN Digital. “It happens all across Asia.”

Sen said that abuse goes beyond unwanted sexual contact and extends into a male-dominated structure of doing business.

“I feel it is because of some of the nature of the work some of the things are not OK, but we have been told that it is,” she said.

Sen stressed to CGTN Digital that the point of telling her story is not to publicly shame the men.

NBC's "Today" host Matt Lauer, the latest celebrity to face sexual harassment allegations, was fired on Tuesday. /Reuters

“It’s not about maligning the men and taking names,” she said. “It is about getting your story out there so that others know and it is about knowing where to go to protect yourself.”

Sen also discussed the concept of what she calls “sticky floors.”

“Women don’t just face glass ceilings to advancement, but are also stuck to domestic images and day-to-day normative behaviors,” she said. “I want us to help women, not punish men.”

Despite the mounting cases of torrid sexual harassment encounters globally, Teo feels media investors can make a difference. “We’re not going to save the world but it is changing the conversation,” she said. "Ethics is hard but you have the ability to make decisions in a rational way with integrity. We need to take some responsibility for the stuff we put out there."