The journalist Jofre Llombart: "I suffered workplace harassment by Manel Fuentes"

The journalist Jofre Llombart, who was the coordinator of El matí de Catalunya Ràdio, has explained on the podcast Focus that Manel Fuentes, who was the presenter of the public radio morning show between 2009 and 2013, harassed him at work. "In 2009-2010 I suffered a case of workplace harassment by Manel Fuentes," the journalist states. In the interview, Llombart explained what Fuentes' behavior was like during the time they worked together: "Today I confront you, tomorrow I cannot live without you. Today I scold you, tomorrow I thank you. Today I congratulate you, tomorrow I criticize you mercilessly. Today I cannot live without you, tomorrow I threaten you that you will never find work in this sector again if it depends on me. You cannot manage this roller coaster well if you don't have the tools. The mistreatment is the whole roller coaster, when it goes up and when it goes down".

The journalist recalls that the presenter created a toxic work environment "with insults, threats, mistreatment, bad temper, and what is now called ghosting". Llombart asserts that this experience has made one of his goals not to reproduce this toxicity in his own work environments.

In the interview, Llombart also reflects on how victims should be supported. "Victims do not speak when they want to. Victims speak when we can. I had not explained it with names and surnames, but in all these years I had not been prepared to do so. You are afraid of reprisals. You are afraid of misunderstanding, above all. You are afraid of not generating empathy. I did not report it because I did not feel I had the courage," he remarks.

Llombart is not the first professional who has worked with Fuentes and who has denounced the toxic environment generated by the former host of El matí de Catalunya Ràdio. In an interview with ARA, Marta Romagosa, currently presenter of La nit dels ignorants, defined the time she worked with him as one of the hardest of her life. "I believe one must know how to lead. And people who do not know how to lead, who only know how to shout, and who do not know how to treat people, should not be in certain positions. But in the end, the decisions, as always, are made by those above. No matter how much you say that one cannot work like this, in the end, no one ends up listening to you. Empathy is just as important as talent," she recalled. Finally, she stated that if she could, she would erase the experience alongside Fuentes from her memory and her resume.