Online Violence Against Women Journalists: A Global Snapshot of Incidence and Impacts

"Online attacks against women journalists have been a pernicious problem for many years. Now, these appear to be increasing dramatically and uncontrollably around the world..."

This report presents a snapshot of the first substantial findings from a global survey about online violence against women journalists conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in late 2020. Part of a broader research project, these survey findings shed light on the incidences, impacts, and responses to online violence against women in an effort to improve responses and identify more effective methods to counter this threat to press freedom, journalists' safety, and women's active participation in journalism.

As explained in the report, the phenomenon of online violence against women can be defined as "a combination of: often brutal, prolific online harassment and abuse, including targeted attacks that frequently involve threats of physical and/or sexual violence; digital privacy and security breaches that can expose identifying information and exacerbate offline safety threats facing women journalists and their sources; and coordinated disinformation campaigns leveraging misogyny and other forms of hate speech. The perpetrators range from misogynistic mobs seeking to silence women, through to State-linked disinformation networks aiming to undercut press freedom and chill critical journalism via orchestrated attacks."

Over 900 validated participants from 125 countries completed the survey in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, resulting in findings that reflect the input of 714 respondents identifying as women. Illustrated with the help of infographics, the report outlines 31 key findings focusing on 5 areas:

1. The prevalence of online violence against women journalists
2. Types and sources of online violence
3. Impacts of online violence against women
4. Vectors (such as platforms and apps) of online violence against women journalists
5. Responses to online violence against women journalists

The following are some of the key findings at a glance:

• 73% of women respondents said they had experienced online violence.
• Threats of physical (25%) and sexual violence (18%) plagued the women journalists surveyed, and these threats radiated - 13% said they had received threats of violence against those close to them.
• 20% of women respondents said they had been attacked or abused offline in connection with online violence they had experienced.
• 13% increased their physical security in response to online violence and 4% said they had missed work due to concerns about the attacks jumping offline.
• The mental health impacts of online violence were the most frequently identified (26%) consequence. 12% of respondents said they had sought medical or psychological help due to the effects of online violence.
• The story theme most often identified in association with increased attacks was gender (47%), followed by politics and elections (44%), and human rights and social policy (31%).
• 41% of the respondents to this survey said they had been targeted in online attacks that appeared to be linked to orchestrated disinformation campaigns.
• Political actors are the second most frequently noted sources (37%) of attacks and abuse, after anonymous or unknown attackers (57%).
• Facebook was rated the least safe of the top 5 platforms/apps used by women participants, with nearly double the number of respondents saying it was "very unsafe" compared to Twitter. It also attracted disproportionately higher rates of incident-reporting among the respondents (39% compared to Twitter's 26%).
• Only 25% of the respondents reported incidents of online violence to their employers, and the top responses they said they received were: no response (10%) and advice like "grow a thicker skin" or "toughen up" (9%), while 2% said they were asked what they did to provoke the attack.
• The women journalists surveyed most frequently indicated (30%) they respond to the online violence they experience by self-censoring on social media. 20% described how they withdrew from all online interaction, and 18% avoided audience engagement specifically.
• Employment and productivity impacts (with implications for gender diversity in and through the news media) reported by the women respondents included making themselves less visible (38%), missing work (11%), quitting their jobs (4%), and even abandoning journalism altogether (2%).

Overall, the report highlights that online attacks on women journalists appear to be increasing exponentially and are also moving offline - with potentially deadly consequences. The results also demonstrate that "online violence against women journalists is a global phenomenon. A climate of impunity for online attacks raises questions that need to be further explored as impunity emboldens the perpetrators, demoralises the victim, erodes the foundations of journalism, heightens journalism safety threats, and undermines freedom of expression."

Based on these findings, the report recommends that urgent action be taken and lists a number of preliminary recommendations:

• States should ensure that laws and rights designed to protect women journalists offline are applied equally online.
• Political actors should desist from mounting attacks (on and offline) against women journalists.
• Women journalists should not be blamed for the online violence they experience; nor should they be expected to bear the responsibility for managing or combating the problem alone.
• Women journalists should be encouraged and aided to report online violence to their employers and internet communications platforms.
• Internet communications companies should ensure that their online abuse and harassment reporting systems enable complaints from women journalists to be acted upon in a timely and effective manner in accordance with international human rights frameworks designed specifically to protect journalists.
• Internet communications companies should detail in their transparency reports the types and patterns of the reports they receive, and the actions they take in response.
• News organisations need to establish formal gender-sensitive procedures and systems for identifying, reporting, and monitoring online violence against their staff.
• Journalists' employers should be encouraged to provide online safety support (integrating psychological, digital security, physical security, and legal responses) to staff, along with targeted education and training.
• Collaborative responses involving civil society organisations, journalists' networks, and researchers are necessary to gain more granular knowledge about attacks, to develop collective responses to guard the safety of women journalists, and to offer adequate support.

The findings of this research were discussed during a session entitled "Online Violence: The New Front Line for Women Journalists - #JournalistsToo" hosted by UNESCO and the ICFJ at the December 2020 World Press Freedom Conference. The session featured journalists Rana Ayyub from India, Carole Cadwalladr from the United Kingdom, Ferial Haffajee from South Africa, and Julie Posetti, ICFJ's Global Director of Research. They shared their personal experiences of online harassment and discussed what needs to be done to more effectively combat online harassment of women journalists. A recording of the discussion can be viewed in the video below, which, in particular, highlights the need for more transparency and accountability from social media platforms when it comes to the spread of online attacks against women journalists.