Greek freelance journalist Anthi Pazianou found herself in the middle of an online abuse campaign in September after the leader of an extreme right-wing movement posted a photo of Pazianou with a refugee football team whose story she had recently covered along with other refugee-related issues on the Greek island of Lesbos. The post, which contained language demeaning Pazianou and questioning her status as a journalist, sparked a wave of insults and verbal sexual harassment, both online and in the streets.
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Over the last two years, the Finnish regional newspaper Turun Sanomat has faced two severe online harassment campaigns against its journalists. The vicious, organized attacks forced it to adopt concrete measures to ensure the safety of its journalists and prevent further harassment – and helped it learn a number of lessons along the way.
IPI report highlights measures ranging from step-by-step guidelines to trauma management
In the context of the overall issue of online harassment, the IPI report, which is the outcome of visits to dozens of newsrooms in five European countries, focuses specifically on female journalists, who have been shown to receive different and more vicious online abuse than their male colleagues.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media participated in the gender component of this publication. The views expressed by the contributing authors in this publication are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.
Download the report
This report specifically examines legal remedies for online attacks against journalists. It looks at three case studies, in Finland, France and Ireland, of female journalists who were viciously attacked online for their work and the ensuing attempts to hold the perpetrators accountable. From an analysis of the case studies, it offers best practices and recommendations for OSCE participating States in implementing and interpreting laws so as to effectively respond to the diverse and growing forms of online harassment and protect the rights of journalists to do their work safely online without compromising freedom of expression as guaranteed by international human rights law.