Jessica Rowe says she was almost sexually assaulted at work.

She was encouraged not to report it.

Jessica Rowe has never pulled any punches. She’s been open about her IVF and her post-natal depression, and now, in her new autobiography, she’s detailed the day she was almost sexually assaulted in her workplace.

Rowe describes the awful moment she was accosted by a drunk news director who’d returned to the office after a boozy long lunch in Is This My Beautiful Life?

The veteran journalist, who now appears on Studio 10, writes that the unnamed director cornered her and pressed his body against hers.

“I managed to get away into one of the editing suites, where I rang one of the senior executives in tears. He counselled me and suggested that it wasn’t a big deal; I got the distinct impression I should keep my mouth shut if I wanted to stay working in that newsroom.”

That’s just what she did.

Australian commercial television networks, like many of the veterans who work for them, remain behind the times, chauvinistic, and hurtling towards obsolescence.

“I knew that working in the media could be tough and it wasn’t a career for the faint-hearted. I also understood how brutal it could be for women,” Rowe writes.

“Commercial television is still primarily run by men, and some of them have very outdated, sexist views.”

More on Jessica Rowe?

Jessica Rowe writes about her long road to motherhood.

Five times Jessica Rowe said the most honest things about parenting you’ll ever hear.

The things Jessica Rowe wants you to know.