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News > Afghanistan

UNESCO: Online Harassment Increasing Among Women Journalists

  • Afghan female journalists participate in a broadcast at radio station 'Women in Kandahar' in Kandahar, Afghanistan. December 07, 2020.

    Afghan female journalists participate in a broadcast at radio station 'Women in Kandahar' in Kandahar, Afghanistan. December 07, 2020. | Photo: EFE/EPA/Muhammad Sadiq

Published 15 December 2020
Opinion

The survey, with a sample size of 1,210 female journalists from 125 countries, revealed that "the story theme most often identified in association with increased attacks was gender, at 47 percent, followed by politics and elections, at 44 percent, and human rights and social policy, at 31 percent." 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported on Tuesday that over 73 percent of women journalists have experienced online harassment and many of them had been threatened with sexual violence.

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According to the study, 18 percent of women were threatened with sexual violence and 20 percent denounced suffering offline attacks "linked with online violence." Moreover, 30 percent of the surveyed acknowledge they had self-censured due to abuse while 26 percent reported negative impacts on their mental health.

The report notices that the harassment was often tied to misinformation campaigns as 41 percent of the participants indicated that the only abuse experienced was a direct result of these campaigns.

The survey, with a sample size of 1,210 female journalists from 125 countries, revealed that "the story theme most often identified in association with increased attacks was gender, at 47 percent, followed by politics and elections, at 44 percent, and human rights and social policy, at 31 percent."

Furthermore, Facebook was found to be the least safe social media platform or application given that the majority of participants said that it was "very unsafe compared to Twitter." About 15 percent of the journalists reported having experienced image-based abuse including manipulated photos or video, stolen images, explicit images shared publicly without permission, and deep fakes.


 

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