Washington: The Governments of the United States of America, Australia, Denmark, Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement calling attention to the “pressing need” for enhanced safety of women journalists and media workers, on World Press Freedom Day 2022 on May 3, 2022.
The undersigned foreign ministers for country members of the ‘Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse’ stated women journalists were disproportionately impacted by threats and attacks, which were more often gendered and sexualized than threats against their male counterparts and increasingly take place online.
“Many women journalists face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and sexual and gender-based violence, including on the basis of other characteristics, including race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” they noted and pointed out that the latest study from 2020 (UNESCO) shows that almost 75 per cent of women journalists worldwide have experienced online violence.
“Social media is a critical avenue for journalists and media organizations to engage their audiences, but it is also a vector of online harms,” they said.
Furthermore, the statement said the escalation of technology-facilitated gender-based violence is of urgent concern and forms a serious threat to an inclusive and diverse media landscape. It is a risk to media pluralism and democracy. “Online threats to women journalists and media workers can lead to self-censorship and disengagement from the digital public square, undermining their ability to exercise their human rights and enjoy the freedom of expression, compounding the forms of violence they face offline. All people – including women – should be able to speak out without fear of harassment, discrimination, or violence. There is also in many places a culture of impunity surrounding online attacks on women journalists and media workers, which perpetuates the cycle of gender-based violence,” they said.
They called upon all states, media companies, workplaces, technology platforms and civil society groups to speak out against technology-facilitated gender-based violence, to prevent and address all forms of violence against women journalists and media workers, both online and offline, and to defend their ability to practice journalism freely and safely.
The Co- signatories to the joint statement were Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator Marise Payne; Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeppe Kofod; South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chung Eui-yong; Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ann Linde; United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss; and United States Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken.
– global bihari bureau
