Threats Against Women Journalists Increase

Physical violence against journalists generally stems from cyber bullying. They receive online threats.

AP PHOTO/JARINGAN MEDIA AL JAZEERA

In an undated photo provided by the Al Jazeera media network, Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Al Jazeera, stands next to a TV camera in the area of the Dome of the Rock shrine in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.

PERUGIA, SUNDAY — The era of social media has resulted in women journalists facing more and more bullying and threats online. A number of cases escalated to physical violence. It is urgent to filter content containing hate speech and calls for violence on social media.

The fact was conveyed by Julie Posetti, the Research Director of the International Center for Journalism (ICJF), when giving a presentation at the Perugia International Journalism Festival (PIJF) in Italy on Saturday (20/4/2024).

"Before there was social media, female journalists faced more threats compared to their male counterparts. These threats generally come in the form of sexual harassment, unprofessional comments, and even physical violence," she said.

The rise of social media, continued Posetti, has brought this threat to the online realm. women journalists's social media accounts have been bombarded with hate speech, threats of rape, and even hacked and blocked.

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AMBROSIUS HARTO MANUMOYOSO

Screenshots on the Alliance of Independent Journalists website show cases of violence against journalists since 2022.

ICJF, together with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), conducted a survey of 900 female journalists from 125 countries since 2022. Two-thirds of the respondents stated that they had experienced online bullying, even receiving death threats towards themselves or their family members. One-fifth of the respondents admitted that the online threats escalated into physical violence.

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For instance, Marianna Spring, a BBC journalist specializing in debunking hoaxes and disinformation, revealed in the ICJF-UNESCO report that she received online messages from anonymous accounts threatening to kill her. These threats emerged after Spring wrote a series of investigative reports about the sale of social media platform Twitter and its name change to X.

REUTERS/ELOISA LOPEZ

Maria Ressa, a former CNN journalist who later founded the online media outlet Rappler in the Philippines, won the Nobel Peace Prize 2021. The photo was taken in Quezon City, Philippines on February 15, 2019.

French journalist Nadia Daam once wrote about the existence of various online communities and their impact on society. Some parties took offense and pursued her online. Daam even had to move houses twice because she felt threatened.

In fact, journalists, both women and men, are vulnerable to various forms of threats and acts of violence. The difference is, based on the study Free Press Unlimited, the majority of threats which is aimed at women journalists based on gender. Threats of rape and other forms of sexual harassment dominate.

These online threats should not be taken lightly. In 2018, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a report that 40 percent of journalists' murder cases were preceded by anonymous letters or hate speech targeting them on the internet. For example, the murder case of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a female journalist from Malta who helped uncover the Panama Papers in her country.

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In India, in 2017, there was the murder of Gauri Lankesh, a female journalist and editor at the weekly newspaper Lakesh Patrike founded by her father. He is very critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which the public considers to be increasingly populist, even tending to the extreme right. Both Galizia and Lankesh, months before they were murdered, received online threats posted on various social media platforms.

Prevention

Posetti is working with the Organization for European Cooperation and Security (OSCE) to develop tools for monitoring, analyzing, preventing and handling online threats against journalists. Even so, he appealed to various major stream media companies, technology companies and the government to prepare systems for preventing and protecting journalists against cyber attacks.

KOMPAS/ADRYAN YOGA PARAMADWYA

Journalists recorded the Declaration of the Women's Coalition for Democracy and Human Rights at the office of the National Commission on Women in Jakarta on Friday (22/12/2023). The declaration was made by 33 women representing various women's organizations and intellectuals.

Jessica Ziegerer, a journalist for the daily HD Sydsvenskan from Sweden, explained that her editorial team has collaborated with security consultants. "Every time we want to publish sensitive coverage, security consultants help calculate the risk of online or physical threats so that the editorial team can take steps to protect its journalists," he said. (AFP)