By Farhana Haque Rahman
TORONTO, Canada, Apr 29 2022 (IPS)

Empowered by a global pandemic and the drum beats of war, the strongest despots are growing more despotic, and criminal cartels even more brazen in their violence. Extremists of various hues are also stepping out of the shadows.

Just when the world most needs press freedom to thrive, the liberties that societies only really treasure when they are emasculated are coming under more pressure from different directions, old and new.

Farhana Haque Rahman

Lest you think that this deterioration is the preserve of less developed countries under autocratic rule, RSF noted an increase in attacks against journalists and arbitrary arrests in Germany, France, Italy and several other European states.

This year –as we approach World Press Freedom Day on May 3 — is measurably worse already, notably in Russia and China, but also in Mexico with an escalation of targeted killings of journalists by suspected drug traffickers.

Some 200 Russian journalists and several dozen foreign reporters have left Russia since the passing of a draconian media law on March 4 which criminalises “deliberately false” information. It outlaws calling the invasion of Ukraine a “war”. In addition Russia is still applying its “foreign agents” legislation to punish and intimidate critical media outlets, including PASMI dedicated exclusively to fighting corruption.

“The Russian authorities’ crackdown on independent media is escalating at breakneck speed. Evidently unsatisfied with merely blocking critical news sites or forcing reporters into exile, the Kremlin now seeks to incarcerate journalists who report on anti-war protests or Russian soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine,” Amnesty International said on April 14 commenting on the arrests of two journalists in the Russian republics of Altay and Khakassia.

“Apart from state propaganda, there is no media landscape in Russia,” Journalist Alexey Kovalyov, now based in Riga, told Al Jazeera. The power of that propaganda must not be underestimated. Accounts are widespread of people living in Ukraine telling relatives in Russia that they are being bombed by the Russian army but their own family members refuse to believe them.

The “world’s biggest jailer of press freedom defenders”, reports RSF, is however China, with 115 men and women currently incarcerated. China ranks 177 out of the 180 countries and territories surveyed. “Media freedom in China is declining at breakneck speed,” the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) stated in January. China has labelled the FCC an “illegal organisation” and appears in its rhetoric to be encouraging an exodus of foreign journalists.

Free media in Hong Kong, once among the freest in Asia, has been almost completely dismantled, according to Hong Kong Watch, a UK-based advocacy group. Its recent report followed the HK FCC’s announcement it would suspend its Human Rights Press Awards as it risked violating the city’s national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.

Whereas Russia and China are deploying “lawfare” against independent journalists and big companies in developed countries are stifling the press with “vexatious” lawsuits, it is more a legal wasteland or absence of the state that is killing journalists in Mexico, among others.

A wave of murders has targeted at least eight journalists so far this year, with seven killed in all of 2021, making Mexico under populist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador one of the most dangerous countries for the press. Journalists, in the words of Adela Navarro Bello, director of the Tijuana weekly Zeta, are “caught in the crossfire between the threats and bullets of narco-traffickers and organised crime and the threats and verbal attacks and attempts to morally annihilate us from the federal and state governments”.

International human rights organisation Article 19 says the Mexican government’s denial of what is happening “results in no urgent measures being taken to stop this brutal spiral of violence”.

A similar pattern is seen in Bangladesh where suspected narco-traffickers killed Bangladeshi journalist Mohiuddin Sarker Nayeem on April 13.

The Committee to Protect Journalists publishes an annual Global Impunity Index and notes that no one has been held to account in 81% of journalist murders worldwide over the past 10 years. Somalia tops the list, with Mexico ranked 6th and Bangladesh 11th.

State-sponsored or tolerated violence and political persecution aside, world press freedom is also being eroded in an insidious way in places where such freedoms are commonly understood to be vital in sustaining well-functioning democracies. Coupled with the apparently unstoppable rise of social media as a source of information – some surveys suggest 50% of adults in the US and UK get their news from social media – the state of much of the traditional press, digital or not, is far from healthy.

The annual Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found the US ranked last in media trust, at 29%, among 92,000 news consumers polled in 46 countries. (Finland came top).

Governments must not be passive while the same powerful corporate lobbies that have spent fortunes over decades spreading climate dis/misinformation in traditional media now feed on the rapacity of Big Tech social media, which are failing to disclose comprehensive policies to combat this. Climate disinformation as a threat to climate action is highlighted in the latest UN Climate Reports.

Press offices of international organisations, particularly the UN and large INGOs, also have a particular responsibility to uphold media freedom by eschewing the corporate dark arts of delay, denial and obfuscation.

A new proposal by the EU executive to protect journalists and campaigners from so-called vexatious lawsuits is highly welcome. The move would target “strategic lawsuits against public participation” known as Slapps, where the rich misuse legal means to silence troublesome investigative reporters and NGOs.

No press freedom, no democracy. Just like freedom of speech, that does not mean a free press can publish whatever it wants. Both need to be defined and, in these very dark times, defended.

Farhana Haque Rahman is Senior Vice President of IPS Inter Press Service and Executive Director IPS North America, including it’s UN Bureau; she served as the elected Director General of IPS from 2015-2019. A journalist and communications expert, she is a former senior official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

IPS UN Bureau

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Credit: United Nations

By Tara Carey
LONDON, Apr 28 2022 (IPS)

Women journalists around the world are experiencing an exponential increase in misogynistic online abuse, which poses a grave risk to women’s media participation in the digital age.

This is a grievous form of censorship that seeks to silence women, stifle free expression, and close down critical journalism by undermining their ability to engage freely in public debate, report on issues, and address discrimination.

Online communication has been weaponized to stigmatize and intimidate female journalists and force them from open discussion. Becoming more prevalent and coordinated, abuse directed at women often differs from harassment that male journalists experience because comments frequently focus specifically on a woman’s gender.

A 2021 report by UNESCO surveyed 901 journalists from 125 countries and found 73% had experienced online hostility, with one in four being threatened with death and almost a fifth threatened with sexual violence.

Abuse in the digital sphere manifests in various ways, entailing vitriolic sexist attacks, inappropriate sexual comments, and sending of unsolicited pornographic or other offensive content. Demeaning comments may focus on a person’s professionalism, intellect, or physical appearance, or can entail threats such as death, torture, and rape.

Digital privacy violations and security breaches also pose major perils. Hacking and exposing private content, non-consensual dissemination of intimate images, and “doxing” in which personal information such as home address is published with malicious intent, are being used to defame women and can compromise their safety offline.

Attacks are often exacerbated when sexism and misogyny intersect with other forms of discrimination such as racism, classism, homophobia, and religious bigotry. This can increase a person’s exposure to offenses on and offline and worsen the scope and hostility.

Sexist and violent language is rooted in patriarchy and is used by preparators to insult and belittle women journalists. Wielded as a weapon to denigrate, demean and marginalize, such abuse can be deeply distressing for recipients and sends a toxic message that women are not safe in the digital world.

Worryingly, there is mounting evidence that online violence is linked to physical attacks and other forms of offline abuse, including legal harassment involving the application of defamation laws which are being weaponized in courts to intimidate, muzzle, and retaliate against women journalists.

Many women journalists experience disinformation-based attacks that smear their reputations. This can be particularly dangerous in more conservative societies where repressive gender norms make reverberations even more harmful and potentially devastating.

Vulnerability and repercussions are compounded in countries where deep-rooted patriarchal attitudes already require women to seek permission from their families to work in journalism; where they have to fight in newsrooms to receive the same opportunities and pay as male colleagues; and where unchecked sexual harassment in the workplace remains rife.

All this thrives alongside weak laws, poor implementation of protections, and impunity for perpetrators. In many instances, it involves unequal power dynamics between individuals targeted by governments or state-linked disinformation networks working to undermine press freedom and suppress critical journalism.

It is common for groups of trolls to participate in orchestrated, targeted personal attacks that form part of coordinated disinformation campaigns harnessing misogyny and other forms of hate speech, often interwoven with populist politics.

This damages not only women working in news but is part of the wider demonization of the press, coupled with the rise of viral disinformation and concerted efforts to undermine public trust in credible journalism.

Women disclose how gender-based abuse pressures them to self-censor, withdraw from frontline reporting and social media, and even abandon journalism completely. Livelihoods are undermined, equity thwarted, and the wellbeing and career prospects of victims are put in jeopardy.

The psychological impacts can be severe and it can require great strength and courage to continue working under such circumstances.

This needs urgent addressing as women journalists have a crucial role to play in enhancing public understanding of issues, shaping public discourse, and influencing policy-makers. A drop in female representation erodes gender diversity in public discourse and risks sidelining gender-sensitive coverage on matters impacting women and girls.

The National Union of Journalists has called for a coordinated effort to tackle the problem, stating, “For too long, the emphasis has been on making women journalists responsible for their own defense and protection, rather than making the perpetrators and instigators, the platform enablers, and law enforcement and media employers accountable.”

A 2022 survey by the International Federation of Journalists found initiatives by media organizations to address online abuse were inadequate. Two-thirds of women journalists surveyed said online harassment was not a priority for their media company, and 44% disclosed the topic was not even discussed.

This reflects UNESCO’s findings that many media companies appear reluctant to take online violence seriously, and in some instances, outlets make things worse by amplifying harassment when reporting allegations and prompting so-called ‘pile-ons’ that escalate online assaults.

Dealing with online abuse mustn’t fall on the shoulders of those being victimized. News organizations need to do more to assist, including developing and implementing gender-specific guidelines and training that incorporate anti-harassment policies and responses.

Women journalists should feel comfortable voicing concerns, and newsrooms must ensure employees are safe and supported.

Huge responsibility also lies with social media providers, which UNESCO describes as the “main enablers.” Attempts by journalists to get offensive content or accounts deleted are “frequently ignored or rejected,“ and central to this “is an attempt to use ‘free speech’ as a shield against accountability, and a continuing reluctance to assume responsibility for the content on their sites.”

Anonymity and uneven regulation of social media platforms across different jurisdictions enable exploiters to easily contact targets. Research by international women’s rights organization Equality Now found in the absence of laws that act to prevent and address online abuse, digital service providers and platforms are adopting voluntary measures.

Consequently, this is resulting in opaque practices and limited redress that puts women journalists and others at risk.

Digital service providers are being called on to protect users from harm. Laws need to be updated and implemented, and better understanding is required amongst law enforcement agencies.

Criminal justice systems should provide support and redress to victims and punish perpetrators as this acts as a deterrent. Online abuse of women journalists is a crisis that must no longer be ignored.

About Equality Now:

Equality Now is an international non-governmental human rights organization that works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world by combining grassroots activism with international, regional, and national legal advocacy. Our international network of lawyers, activists and supporters achieve legal and systemic change by holding governments responsible for enacting and enforcing laws and policies that end legal inequality, sex trafficking, online sexual exploitation, sexual violence, and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.

IPS UN Bureau

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