CIISA Annual Report 2024-2025 - Flipbook - Page 20
The CIISA Standards a landmark moment
An overview by journalist, Stuart Kemp
The arrival of an operational, industry-uniting body to prevent and
tackle workplace bullying and harassment, including discriminatory
behaviour in less than three years is testament to the desire, passion
and hard work of a dedicated team and sector leaders keen to drive
positive change.
ORIGIN STORY
In late 2022, Time’s Up UK founders
Barbara Broccoli CBE and Dame
Heather Rabbatts asked the British
Film Institute’s Director of Culture
and Inclusion Jen Smith to take
the lead on setting up a new body
to prevent and tackle bullying,
harassment and discriminatory
behaviour across the film and
television industries.
It was an ambitious ask but
one fuelled by a fierce desire
from industry leaders to provide
an independent place for
people to report experiences
of poor behaviour, bullying and
harassment in the workplace.
Rabbatts – a qualified barrister
who has held a number of senior
executive positions including as
a Governor of the BBC, a senior
executive at Channel 4 and the
Chair of US and UK production
company Shed Media where she
oversaw its sale to Time Warner –
was well-placed as Time’s Up UK
Chair to recognise the necessity
for creating CIISA.
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“Time’s Up UK proposed the
idea for CIISA back in 2021 in
response to numerous allegations
of bullying and harassment
that came to light and were
being played out in the media,
allegations of abuse in the music
industry, in film and TV and
beyond,” Rabbatts explains. “It
was clear to us then that there
was no just process for either the
complainants or those accused.
We understood that only by
creating a body which stands fully
independent, with processes and
investigations informed by legal
