UNESCO Funded Study Finds That Women Journalists More Exposed To Online Violence Since Pandemic
In April 2021, the International Center For Journalists (ICFJ), released an extract of findings of a study into the disparate effects of online violence against women journalists.
This study was produced by the ICFJ and was commissioned and funded by UNESCO as part of investigations into the violence faced online by female journalists like Kiki Mordi and Maria Ressa.
Ms Mordi who is a Nigerian journalist and the CEO of Document Women has faced online violence such as doxxing and threats while doing her job as reporter.
While the study showed that online violence occurred on apps like Twitter, for Maria Ressa a Filipino-American journalist and CEO of Rappler and winner of a Nobel Prize, her primary source of threats came from social apps like Facebook.
"First, I’m attacked for being a journalist, second I’m attacked for being a woman," Maria Ressa said.
It was also reported that lies about her being a "CIA Agent '' and a "foreigner" in the Philippines.
According to the earlier mentioned study, of the 901 women journalists interviewed, 73 per cent reported that they had experienced online violence ranging from rape and death threats to their private details being shared.
In instances where the journalist in question was Black, Asian, lesbian or member of a minority group, the study found that there was heightened exposure to online violence.
In the study too, it was noted that political seasons in countries saw women journalists face a heightened increase in online violence.
It said that 37 per cent of the respondents identified political actors as major sources of online violence.
For instance, during the Brazilian elections, Patricia Campos Mello, a journalist, began publishing a series of articles in the context of the elections.
She is reported as having received threats and being a victim of pornographic deepfakes.
Describing the violence faced online Ms Mello was quoted in the report saying, "The type of violence online was very aggressive, it was more false news. There were thousands of memes of a naked woman, or in bra and panties, with my face on it...thousands of memes with different [sexual] positions, movies, videos of me as a ‘prostitute journalist’, and threats such as ‘you should be raped’."
It was also revealed that ever since the COVID-19 pandemic made journalists resort more to digital communications and social apps to dispense information, women journalists faced more threats and heightened sexism online while trying to do their jobs.
On the effects of online violence, the study revealed that it could not only question the credibility of the journalist through disinformation campaigns, it could also silence more women and institute an environment of fear into other women watching as spectators.
It was also seen in the study that online violence did not only stay online but could spill into the offline space as well with the respondents reporting that they often feared for their safety especially when personal details such as home addresses were doxxed to the public.
Asides the ICFJ produced study, Document Women as an organisation has been running campaigns to speak on the concepts of digital rights and the bullying faced especially by women on apps like Twitter.
The full study can be read here.