The amount of online violence against female journalists has reached a "crisis point," scientists report based on an international survey: three in four female journalists expressed they have already experienced online violence and abuse.
Online violence and threats against female journalists "is internationally one of the most serious contemporary threats to press freedom," concluded researchers from the University of Sheffield who conducted a three-year survey of some 1,100 journalists in 15 countries.
“Our report has found that we are now at a crisis point in the level of violence being directed towards women journalists," said UK researcher Kalina Bontcheva in a press release on Monday. Along with the authors of the report – titled The Chilling report – she calls on governments, tech companies and the news industry alike to step up efforts to counter the "crisis of online violence against female journalists."
Additionally, there is a "vicious and self-reinforcing cycle" in which digital violence leads to real attacks in the offline world.
Physical violence and death threats
The report is based on research by the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) and the University of Sheffield, which polled the experiences of nearly 1,100 journalists. It also analysed 2.5 million messages on social networking sites addressed to Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and British journalist Carole Cadwalladr of The Guardian.
Cadwalladr revealed how Cambridge Analytica collected personal information from millions of Facebook users for political ads. Between December 2019 and January 2021, she faced some 10,400 separate cases of clear online hate, the researchers said.
The messages were highly gendered and intended to "humiliate, belittle and discredit" the journalist, both on a personal and professional level. "A few centuries ago I would have been burned at the stake, now I have become a national punching bag," Cadwalladr testified.
Three in four female journalists who participated in the survey said they have faced online violence.
Some 25% say they have already received threats of physical violence or even death threats, 18% reported sexual violence and 13% indicated that there had been threats of violence against their family members and children. Almost half (48%) said they had already been intimidated by unwanted private messages on social media.
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In Belgium, journalists are also increasingly facing violence and threats: they were recently targeted during demonstrations and others had to go into hiding after threats from the criminal world, said Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, who has foreseen measures to punish certain crimes against journalists more severely in the country's new penal code.
"It is an alarming observation that journalists are increasingly being targeted. It is not only the journalist who is affected, but also society as a whole. After all, a free press is crucial for a free society," said Van Quickenborne in a press release on Monday.
"Violence undermines objective information and independent reporting. As with police officers, we as a society do not accept journalists becoming targets of violence. That is why we ensure stricter penalties to better protect them."
Stricter punishments
The minister wants journalists to be included in the list of social functions, which details professions of great social importance that are particularly vulnerable to acts of violence, against which crimes are punished more severely, along with Belgian healthcare workers.
Additionally, stricter punishments will be provided for an extended list of crimes. Under the current system, this applies only to assault and battery and manslaughter, but in the new criminal code, this will be extended to torture and inhumane treatment. The latter could also include repeated serious threats against the journalist.
If one of these offences is committed against a journalist because of their job, this counts as an aggravated felony meaning that the court should impose a sentence at a higher level. To illustrate, acts of violence that are usually punishable by 3-5 years in prison (level 3) will be punishable by 5-10 years in prison (level 4) in respect of journalists.
