IPI’s research on online harassment of journalists has clearly highlighted that attacks targeting female journalists are not only more frequent but also more vicious and often adopt a highly sexualized language that is difficult to counter through rational arguments and professional tools and results. Therefore, they affect the person beyond their professional identity, leaving a sense of vulnerability.

In extreme cases these attacks lead to self-censorship or worse: They may cause women to retreat from the public sphere, leaving the male-dominated field of journalism with even fewer female voices

IPI has worked with the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) as part of its #SOFJO (Safety of Female Journalists Online) project to analyse specific challenges women face in this area and the newsroom practices aimed at addressing them.

This section presents IPI’s work in three areas:

  • Reports and documents examining and framing online harassment of female journalists and putting forward recommendations so as to create a basis for a solutions-oriented approach.
  • Interviews with experts that provide in-depth analyses of specific aspects of the problem and suggestions on how to address them.
  • Interviews with journalists targeted by online harassment campaigns that illustrate the consequences of this phenomenon on journalists and journalism.

Legal Responses to Online Harassment and Abuse of Journalists: Perspectives from Finland, France and Ireland

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.

Newsroom Best Practices for Addressing Online Violence against Journalists

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.

Attacks on women journalists

A Dark Place: A SOFJO Documentary (Trailer)

The online safety of women journalists goes beyond gender equality and press freedom, directly impacting the quality of our democracies and right of society to access a plurality of information. This simple truth unfolds in A Dark Place through first-hand experiences shared by those journalists targeted with online abuse and experts in the fields of human rights, gender and media freedom.

Interviews with Experts

Attacks on women journalists

Interview with Nani Jansen Reventlow

Legal frameworks to counter online harassment against female journalists

Attacks on women journalists

Interview with Elana Newman

What is the emotional toll that online harassment takes on female journalists?

Interviews with Journalists

stories of women journalists

Interview with Arzu Geybullayeva

Personal story of a female journalist who has been targeted with online threats and smear campaigns

stories of women journalists

Interview with Marija Vučić

Personal story of a female journalist who has been targeted with online threats and smear campaigns

stories of women journalists

Safety of Female Journalists Online – Campaign Video

This video explains the urgent need to step up efforts to tackle threats, harassment and intimidation of journalists online. The video is part of the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media's #SOFJO campaign, carried out in close cooperation with IPI.

IPI would like to thank the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media for their support in this area. The Safety of Female Journalists Online (#SOFJO) is OSCE RFoM's flagship project to address online harassment on female journalists