Threats, abuse at women journalists at ‘crisis point’, says report

The level of abuse being directed at female journalists has reached a “crisis point”, according to researchers behind a global report.

Academics who conducted the three-year international study, covering 15 countries, urged policymakers to take action after it found the vast majority of journalists who took part had suffered from online abuse and threats.

Online abuse of women journalists is “one of the most serious contemporary threats to press freedom internationally”, according to the authors of the study, who found a “vicious and selfperpetuating cycle” in which digital harassment and threats spawn real-world, offline attacks and abuse.

Online violence against women journalists is “one of the most serious contemporary threats to press freedom internationally,’’ according to the authors of the study.

The author, who found a vicious and self-perpetuating cycle in which digital harassment and threats spawn real-world, offline attacks and abuse.

The authors of ”The Chilling” are calling for governments, as well as the news industry and the giant tech corporations; to do more to tackle what they say is “a crisis of online violence towards women journalists’’.

Kalina Bontcheva, senior researcher in the UK arm of the study, said: “Our report has found that we are now at a crisis point in the level of violence being directed towards women journalists.

“The vast majority who took part in the study had suffered from online violence, so UK policymakers need to take urgent action now in order to protect the lives of those who are doing such an important job in society.”

The report, which is based on research by International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) and University of Sheffield, said: “Online violence against women journalists is one of the most serious contemporary threats to press freedom internationally.’’

The authors said the study drew on the experiences of nearly 1,100 journalists in 15 countries.

It also examined 2.5 million social media posts directed at Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, from the Philippines, and award-winning British journalist Carole Cadwalladr.

The team’s analysis found that Cadwalladr, who writes for The Observer and The Guardian, was the target of 10,400 separate instances of obvious abuse between December 2019 and January 2021.

It found that the abuse was highly gendered and designed to humiliate, belittle and discredit the journalist on both a personal and professional level.

Cadwalladr, who is best known for exposing the Cambridge Analytica / Facebook story, told researchers how “a few hundred years ago I would have been burned at the stake” and how she has become a “national punching bag”.

University of Sheffield analysis of approximately 75,000 tweets directed at BBC disinformation reporter Marianna Spring, between March to August 2021, found that more than half of 55 per cent of the abuse was designed to discredit her as a journalist, and 27 per cent was sexist and misogynistic.

The remainder was classified as generally abusive.

The UK arm of the research found that online violence against women journalists is frequently associated with polarising political debates, such as that surrounding Brexit and that the COVID pandemic has worsened the situation for women journalists.

Globally, the research found that nearly three-quarters of the women journalists surveyed had experienced online violence in the course of their work.

Threats of physical violence, including death threats, were identified by 25 per cent and sexual violence by 18 per cent.

While, describing threats of violence against those close to them, including children and infants to be 13per cent.