LONDON: The UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization has published a discussion research paper that points to a steep rise in online violence against women journalists.
The UNESCO report titled “The Chilling: Global trends in online violence against women journalists,” is based on research by the International Center for Journalists and the University of Sheffield, and highlights the evolving challenges faced by female reporters.
“UNESCO first commissioned (the) ICFJ to produce the research in 2019, amid growing concern at the UN level about threats faced by women journalists online, that were effectively chilling their freedom of expression,” Dr. Julie Posetti, deputy VP and global director of research at the ICFJ, told Arab News.
“(The report) is the most comprehensive study on gender-based online violence targeting women journalists to date and demonstrates how women journalists targeted with misogynistic abuse suffer both more, and worse, online violence at the intersection of racism and religious bigotry, for example.”
The study reveals how online attacks are inextricably bound up with disinformation, intersectional discrimination, and populist politics, and are often tied to larger disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining public trust in fact-based journalism.
A team of 24 international researchers that interviewed over 1,000 female journalists in 15 countries, found that nearly three in four women respondents (73 percent) said they had experienced online violence, with nearly one in four being the target of physical and sexual violence threats.
“These attacks have a chilling effect on women’s journalism and their freedom of expression,” the report states.
