A new study by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) suggests that online violence against women journalists aids and abets physical violence against them too, including assault and murder. The study, which covered 15 countries over a period of three years and is titled The Chilling: A Global Study Of Online Violence Against Women Journalists, notes that online violence against women journalists usually aims to silence, humiliate and discredit them.
“It inflicts very real psychological injury, chills public interest journalism, kills women’s careers and deprives society of important voices and perspectives,” the study states. It draws from the experiences of 1,100 journalists, and reveals that nearly three quarters of the surveyed women said that they had experienced online violence. Around 25 per cent respondents identified threats of physical violence, including death threats. Threats of sexual violence was identified by 18 per cent.
The ICFJ says that this report is the most geographically, linguistically and ethnically diverse study of online violence against women. Commissioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the study was led by Dr Julie Posetti, global director of ICFJ and senior researcher at the Centre for the Freedom of the Media (CFOM), University of Sheffield, UK.
“Online violence towards women journalists aids and abets impunity for crimes against journalists, and it must be tackled urgently,” Posetti said. “This requires political actors who instigate and amplify online violence to be restrained and penalised. It also demands that the platforms be held accountable for their role as vectors for online violence, through freedom of expression-respecting regulation by the states which claim that they want to tackle issues of impunity and protect journalists, including the UK.”
*Image used for representative purpose.