Although the numerous journalists, editors, managers and other experts who contributed to this study were given the possibility to speak about the problem of online harassment in both gender-neutral and gender-specific terms, there was almost complete agreement, across all countries and news organizations visited, not only that female journalists are more often targeted in online attacks, but also that the attacks experienced by women are especially vicious and often highly sexualized.
There is no doubt that there is a link between the particular subject covered by a journalist and the ensuing level of hate that she receives through online channels. Coverage of certain sensitive, polarizing topics carries a high possibility of harassment. But while men tend to be criticized, insulted and threatened on the basis of their professional output (news content and social media posts), attacks on women mostly focus on the journalist herself and her physical traits.
The experts and media professionals who contributed to this research agreed that this gender-specific harassment merited particular attention. these violent, sexualized attacks are seen as especially serious and as posing a deep challenge to journalists’ ability to work; they are an alarming reflection of latent and widespread misogynist sentiments present across our societies, and ultimately contribute to the legitimization and normalization of such sentiments.
For all the reasons above, journalists and news managers agreed on the importance of adopting strategies aimed at promoting healthy conversations both on the comment sections of online news platforms, as well as on social media platforms.
Interestingly, numerous contributors to this study pointed out that the attacks targeting women are often similar in nature to those directed at journalists who – on the basis of their names or physical traits – are perceived to have foreign origins or to belong to ethnic or religious minorities. In Poland, for instance, journalists perceived to be Jewish have been targets of violent waves of online attacks because of their (occasionally mistaken) religious identity/belief. In Germany, those coming from Turkish families, or from the wider Muslim community, have received violent online attacks more often than their colleagues, especially if they cover migration issues.
For woman journalists who also identify as members of ethnic or religious minorities, the harassment can become even more extreme. For them, covering a contested topic essentially means deciding to face an avalanche of online hate and threats.
In an interview with IPI, Layla-Roxanne Hill, director of the Scottish investigative journalism cooperative The Ferret and chair of the Scottish Trade Union Congress Black Workers’ Committee, pointed out that if one is a person of colour “people find an extra dimension to attack you”.
“You will find women writers, particularly Muslim ones, who will be charged with trying to promote certain religious ideology by simply raising awareness of things that are happening to them or to their community”, Hill said. “There is always the ‘otherness’ that will take precedent over you being a woman and a journalist, when you experience online abuse, […] so the emotional toll is one of isolation, loneliness and anger.”
The situation can be compounded further if the journalist operates in front of a camera and her face is recognizable to audiences. “The problem is that this hate is now spilling onto the streets: Journalists are being attacked”, Dunya Hayli, a well-known German television journalist said in 2016. Hayali, who has been the target of vicious online campaigns while covering the so-called refugee crisis, described how a person had approached her while she was shopping and shouted in her face.
Mònica Terribas, a renowned radio journalist with the Catalan public broadcaster, became a target of social media attacks by far-right groups amid the ongoing debate around Catalan independence. The online campaign against Terribas eventually resulted in an incident on October 27, 2017, when dozens of far-right protesters attacked the outside of her studio with stones.
The experiences of journalists such as Dunja Hayali and Mònica Terribas show how fast online harassment can turn into, and even legitimize, physical attacks.
The experts who contributed to this study debated whether women are primary targets of online hate because aggressors take advantage of the misogyny present in society to ensure that their messages attract greater attention and spread more quickly; or because the promotion of misogyny in society is in itself one of the goals of online vitriol.
Contributors in all countries, however, agreed that silencing journalists who cover certain politically or socially contested topics, and who express diverse opinions, is the core goal of online attacks. This silencing is achieved, on the one hand, by generating fear and self-censorship among journalists, and, on the other, by discrediting journalists in the public eye, leading to a loss of trust – journalists’ most precious commodity – or loss of employment.