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From Nellie Bly and her courageous undercover investigative reporting of the appalling conditions of a New York City mental asylum to Christiane Amanpour, who is one of the leading war reporters of the late 20th to early 21st centuries, and Hawon Jung, who brings the voices of the women of the feminist and #MeToo movements in South Korea to the world, female journalists have been trailblazers who highlight the voices of the marginalised, the traumatised, and the oppressed by forcing their communities, countries, and the world to sit up and pay attention. Collectively, the beats they cover and the stories they break show how, as Arundhati Roy once pointed out: “There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” 

Since the late 1900s, female journalists have accomplished – and continue to accomplish – their groundbreaking work in the face of sexism and misogyny in the male-dominated world of journalism and the media. Additionally, they face the deadly occupational hazard of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, rape, and femicide. This is such a pervasive personal and workplace safety issue that female reporters across the world and organisations such as the UN have been sounding the alarm for years. Brazil’s female sports reporters have banded together to speak out about sexual harassment from male sports fans while they are reporting in the field and on air; female Nigerian journalists have lifted the lid on sexual harassment in newsrooms across the country; and the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner published #JournalistsToo: Women Journalists Speak Out, a collection of essays from 11 women journalists across the world sharing their experiences facing gender-based violence on the job. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Violence against female journalists has widened in scope to include online violence in the internet-driven 21st century where female journalists have been doxxed, trolled, and subjected to rape threats. As UNESCO noted, “One of the issues that has most marked the history of journalism and that remains valid to this day is the violence that is exercised in multiple ways against the press, especially against women journalists, making them a group persecuted physically, emotionally, sexually, and now, virtually.” The risk of violence is also particularly virulent for female journalists who report on women’s rights news. The Reporters Without Borders report Journalism in the #MeToo Era found that almost 60% of female journalists surveyed across 110 countries know at least one journalist who has been subject to cyberharassment because they cover issues linked to gender-based violence and women’s human rights. One example is that of two Seoul-based reporters, Park Hyo-sil and Kang Kyung-yoon, whose investigation and reports on the Burning Sun sex trafficking and gang rape scandal resulted in Park suffering from two miscarriages and Kang becoming a target of constant vicious trolling. 

The safety of female journalists is paramount because the gender-based violence against them – both in and out of the newsroom and online – is not just an attack on free speech but also an assault on one half of humanity’s right to speak and be heard after centuries of having their voices be silenced and disregarded as a demographic. In light of this, here are 16 actionable ideas for newsrooms, governments, social media platforms, and law enforcement to address violence against female journalists. While not everything on this list is suitable for everyone, we hope that this will be a useful starting point. 

Introduction by Regina Yau. Researched and written by Regina Yau. 

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5 Actions For Newsrooms and Other Media Organisations

Idea for Action #1: Make the Newsroom Safe for Female Journalists

Many female journalists not only run the risk of gender-based violence when they are out in the field, they also have to contend with male colleagues who are sexist, misogynist, and even predatory. In 2022, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) released a global study on sexual harassment in the newsroom that showed that 41% of women journalists have experienced physical and/or verbal harassment in the workplace. Therefore, newsrooms and media organisations that are serious about tackling the issue of violence against female journalists should start with their own workplace. Implement a comprehensive and well-defined workplace policy for addressing sexism and violence towards female staff, including having a strict rule against victim-blaming, providing a safe space and clear due process for victims, and respecting the agency and rights of women in the organisation. This may be reinforced through the orientation of new staff, training sessions for existing staff and swiftly dealing with any violations. For a more comprehensive list of steps you can take, go here.

 

Idea for Action #2: Include Gender Editors as Part of the Editorial Team

For International Women’s Day 2025, the Reuters Institute and Oxford University released their report analysing the gender breakdown in newsroom leadership across 240 news outlets in 12 global markets. Their findings show that women occupy just 27% of top editorial roles. The male dominance in the editorial role helps perpetuate sexism and misogyny in the newsroom. It also affects the way news is reported and determines which stories are considered worth reporting, frequently resulting in the underreporting of news about women and the inaccurate representation of women. To counter this, consider appointing and including a gender editor as part of your team. The gender editor would be a woman editor who would work with copyeditors and journalists on how to present events or topics, provide recommendations and propose approaches that would help apply a gender-sensitive approach to journalism. This idea has precedent: in 2017, The New York Times appointed journalist Jessica Bennett as its first gender editor, and in Latin America, there are gender editors active in newsrooms in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Guatemala.

 

Idea for Action #3: Newsroom Protocols as a Preventative Measure

To mitigate the risk of gender-based violence against female journalists, newsrooms should implement solid and comprehensive newsroom protocols to ensure safety during investigative journalism and news coverage. These may include factoring in the possibility of gender-based violence against a journalist when performing risk assessment for a story, and creating solid and clear policies for the newsroom to prepare staff for handling online violence (including step-by-step protocols for responding when an attack occurs). These policies and protocols should be made accessible to both newsroom and freelance staff.

 

Idea for Action #4: Implement Safety Training Against Online Harassment for Female Journalists

With online harassment rife against female journalists, often forcing them to silence or censor themselves, one method of keeping them safer is to provide them practical safety training in dealing with online harassment. Such training should teach them how to document incidents of online harassment effectively, including: the best ways of recording threats for different social media channels; accurately identifying the type(s) of threat made; and tracking down the identity of the perpetrators. Other aspects of the training should include: educating journalists on how to safeguard and lock down their privacy and personal information online; providing them with a clear process for reporting cases of online harassment to editors, law enforcement, and the digital platforms where the harassment or attacks occurred; and outlining how your organisation and/or newsroom can and will support their case. For a more comprehensive list of what you can and should include in safety training, go here. 

 

Idea for Action #5: Maintain an Internal Support System for Female Journalists 

The Reporters Without Borders report, “Journalism in the #MeToo Era”, found that 27% of the female journalists who responded to their survey find it so dangerous to cover women’s rights, gender issues and/or gender-based violence that they run the very real risk of femicide. Therefore, it is crucial that newsrooms and media organisations provide the appropriate level of support and resources for keeping their female journalists safe. Reporters Without Borders recommends several measures that newsrooms can take, including: protecting journalists who work on the women’s issues beat as well as their sources; setting up internal emergency arrangements to support them; providing them with physical and psychological safety training; and developing more funding to better support investigative work on gender-based violence.

 

4 Actions for Governments 

Idea for Action #6: Protect Female Journalists Working on Women’s Issues  

According to ARTICLE 19, a non-profit free speech organisation: “Under international human rights treaties, States are obliged to ensure all women fully enjoy both the right to freedom of expression and the right to equality. When applied to women journalists, this means that States have the obligation to prevent, protect, and respect their right to freedom of expression.” The first step in meeting this obligation is for governments to recognise and understand that female journalists routinely face obstacles and threats that compromise their safety in the course of their work, including a heightened risk of gender-based violence. This recognition should be followed by concrete steps to ensure the safety of female journalists through a range of instruments available to governments such as updating existing laws and legislation to account for this issue as well as ensuring that the department or ministry of women includes the safety of female journalists in their overall efforts to stop violence against women and girls. 

 

Idea for Action #7: Make Online Harassment Against Female Journalists a Criminal Offence

One constructive action that governments can take is to create a law or adapt a current law to make online harassment against female journalists a criminal offence. Depending on the country, there are numerous ways this could be accomplished. The method suggested by Reporters Without Borders is making the cyber-harassment of female and gender minority journalists a criminal offence under criminal law, with aggravating circumstances for the perpetrators and those responsible for these offences. Another option: updating and expanding existing laws and legislation addressing sexual harassment or online violence against women and children to include provisions for criminalising the targeted harassment of female journalists. 

 

Idea for Action #8: Provide Targeted Public Funding For Stopping Violence Against Female Journalists 

Governments can and should properly fund prevention, intervention, and protection measures for female journalists with monies targeted at creating and maintaining the programmes, tools, training, and support systems needed to increase the safety of female journalists. The funds may be used for a creating a range of resources, including: media organisations hiring gender experts for guidance on implementing a charter of commitment to gender equality within their structures; hiring experts on gender-based violence prevention to conduct training sessions for their newsroom team; and setting up an accessible safety system for female journalists to access during emergencies. For example, Colombia passed a law in June 2024 to create an annual $500,000 fund for combatting violence against female journalists.

 

Idea for Action #9: Participate in Joint International Efforts to Address Violence Against Female Journalists

Violence against female journalists is a widespread issue across the world as evident from numerous surveys and studies. While it is important to take steps to tackle this issue within one’s country, it is equally important for governments to participate in joint international efforts to address this violence and to ensure the safety of female journalists no matter where they are and where their work takes them. An excellent first step is to join the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC). This coalition has over 50 member states from across 6 continents taking action to support the safety of female journalists in collaboration with UNESCO and press freedom organisations. 

 

4 Actions for Social Media and Other Digital Platforms

Idea for Action #10: Assist with Awareness-Raising  

Because social media channels rely on news and media sources for a sizeable chunk of their content, it stands to reason that they would benefit from helping keep safe the journalists who work on the breaking news and stories in their newsfeeds. Social media channels can start by working with newsrooms and the government on communication campaigns that educate the public about violence against journalists specialising in gender-based violence, leveraging the power of your platforms to reach a wide audience.  

 

Idea for Action #11: Have an Accessible Reporting System 

Digital platforms, including social media, blogging sites such as Tumblr and WordPress, and self-publishing news sites such as Substack, Medium, and Ghost can and should provide accessible ways for female journalists who use their platforms to report gender-based violence. One way to do so is to set up a team that is trained to handle incoming reports from journalists who are victims of online harassment, the newsrooms they work for, and civil rights organisations acting on their behalf. Ensure that there are protocols in place for responding to reports, supporting journalists who are facing online violence (including assisting them in locking down their accounts) and taking action to shut down attackers and their content.

 

Idea for Action #12: Have a Clear Policy for Combatting Trolls and Other Perpetrators

Many female journalists use social media to remain contactable for story leads, sources, and feedback on their stories. This leaves them vulnerable to online harassment and misogynistic trolling. Hannah Storm, director of the International News Safety Institute, points out that female journalists are three times more likely to be harassed online compared to their male counterparts. Reporters Without Borders recommends several steps digital platforms can take to tackle this issue, including combatting anonymous threats and coordinated and repeated harassment campaigns by “troll factories” through removing content and suspending accounts prescribed by the applicable law and by allocating enough resources to use actual human moderation.

 

Idea for Action #13: Provide Supporting Evidence for Cases of Violence Against Journalists

Social media platforms should not stonewall when receiving injunctions from legal authorities and law enforcement investigating cases of violence against journalists. Promptly provide evidence requested by the authorities, which may include logs of the incidents of violence on your platform and any information you may have about the attackers. Request a warrant if needed to legally cover your bases but once you have received it, hand over the requested evidence without delay as part of assisting the authorities with apprehending the perpetrators. 

 

3 Actions for Law Enforcement

Idea for Action #14: Appoint Liaison Officers for Cases of Violence Against Female Journalists

Police forces should appoint specialist police liaison officers who focus on cases of violence against female journalists. These liaison officers would be educated about violence against women including online violence against women and violence against female journalists. They should be trained to handle cases of violence against female journalists, including: receiving and documenting attacks on journalists, especially those covering women’s rights issues; liaising with female journalists who are victims of cyber-harassment; and working with civil rights organisations and legal authorities on cases. 

 

Idea for Action #15: Prevention Through Documentation 

The Council of Europe’s report on their campaign for the safety of journalists notes that “a lack of comprehensive data on violence against journalists makes it difficult to address safety issues effectively.” Law enforcement can help close this gap by monitoring, tracking, and documenting cases of attacks on female journalists, paying particular attention to those who cover stories related to women’s rights and gender violence. When conducted properly and consistently, documentation can support efforts to stop violence against female journalists in two interconnected ways: it can help identify and map the major trends, patterns, and hotspots of gender-based violence against female journalists which will, in turn, provide the relevant information needed to form appropriate and effective preventative measures.

 

Idea for Action #16: Participate in Coordinated Approaches

The issue of violence against female journalists requires a multi-pronged approach with all major stakeholders–including law enforcement agencies – working together to address the issue on multiple levels. The key is to form active partnerships and coalitions that work together on projects, initiatives, and strategies to ensure the safety of women journalists. A basic starting point would be to set up clear communication and reporting channels between the media and the police. This means setting aside the mutual distrust between the media and the police, which can become a barrier to making progress in this matter. Additionally, Reporters Without Borders recommends creating “national committees for the safety of female journalists, which would include legal, police and journalists’ associations representatives, to maintain a regular dialogue.”

 

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