UNESCO calls to end online violence against women journalists in 8 March campaign

A recent UNESCO-ICFJ survey has found that 73% of the women journalists surveyed reported having faced online violence while doing their job. They are often targeted in coordinated misogynistic attacks.

As Guy Berger, Director for Policies and Strategies in the filed of Communication and Information at UNESCO, explains, “this violence harms women’s right to speak and society’s right to know”. “To tackle this increasing trend”, he adds, “we need to find collective solutions to protect women journalists from online violence”. This includes strong responses from social media platforms, national authorities and media organizations.

Visit UNESCO’s social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) to view the campaign video, which premieres today.

The campaign highlights key results from the UNESCO-ICFJ global survey on online violence against women journalists, which were published last December in the report ‘Online violence against women journalists: a global snapshot of incidence and impacts’(now also available in French, Spanish, and Arabic). 

The campaign will continue until World Press Freedom Day (3 May), when UNESCO will launch a major study on good practices in tackling online violence against women journalists. This trailblazing study includes legal analysis, findings from the global survey, big data analysis, and case studies from 15 countries (Brazil, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tunisia, UK, USA), with a focus on the under-studied Global South.