Equally Safe: Towards a feminist approach to the safety of journalists

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Women’s right to freedom of expression requires them to be equally able to share their ideas and opinions – online and offline – without censorship or fear of retaliation, which can drive them out of public debate.

Proposals to improve journalists’ safety often assume that one size fits all. Yet ARTICLE 19 has found that women journalists face uniquely gendered risks – from workplace harassment to online rape threats and physical attacks. A gendered lens is vital to understand and mitigate these risks.

Women journalists are not a monolithic group. The risks and abuse they face differ depending on their race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, and other characteristics. Those who already face oppression in one form or another typically face greater risks and harsher abuse.

Such an approach requires us to attend to women’s everyday lives, in all their diversity. And it enables us to learn from women’s creativity and resilience in the face of structural inequalities.

An intersectional feminist approach – one that accounts for these intersecting forms of oppression – is needed to enhance the safety of all women journalists, everywhere.

ARTICLE 19’s new project, Equally Safe: Towards a Feminist Approach to the Safety of Journalists, offers new research, case studies from 6 countries, practical guidelines, and advocacy tools. These will help civil society, journalists, researchers, and policy makers to apply an intersectional feminist approach in their work.

The facts

Between half and two-thirds of women journalists have experienced gender-based harassment and abuse – and women from marginalised groups are targeted more often.

Those responsible are multiple, varied (from governments to sources, colleagues, and family members), and rarely held accountable.

An intersectional feminist approach is needed to enhance the safety of all women journalists, including those facing multiple forms of discrimination.

Worldwide – as our new research shows – women journalists are designing solutions that work for them, which we can learn from and replicate.

Voices from our research

Women should not be negotiating for their space within their place of work. The time for responses designed by men, for men is over; it is time women took the lead. Dilrukshi Handunetti, South Asia Women in Media, Sri Lanka

Read our Sri Lanka Case Study

A mixed-media image from the Equally Safe project. Featuring a woman smiling, with an overlapping graphic of a map of a region in Sri Lanka

In a country where women are on the sidelines of leadership in the media industry, [we are] founded and self-managed by peripheral and black women. Jessica Moreara, Nós, Mulheres da Periferia (We, Women from the Periphery), Brazil

Read our Brazil case study

Bangladesh Nari Sangbadik Kendro created the space for women to show solidarity against inequality and injustice. Nasimun Ara Huq Minu, President, Bangladesh Nari Sangbadik Kendro (Bangladesh Women Journalists Centre)

Read our Bangladesh case study

It is not possible to speak of informational pluralism if women are not in the media. Nataly Gonzáles Díaz, General Coordinator, Red de Periodistas y Comunicadoras Feministas de Chile (Feminist Network of Journalists and Communicators of Chile)

Read our Chile case study

A mixed-media image from the Equally Safe project. Featuring a woman looking forward, with an overlapping graphic of a map of a region in Chile

Reporting from a remote district is very challenging, my family members are in constant fear that I could be abducted, if not killed. Menuka Dhungana, reporter, Kantipur Daily, Nepal

Read our Nepal case study

A mixed-media image from the Equally Safe project. Featuring a woman looking downwards, with an overlapping graphic of a map of a region in Nepal

The idea of the “macho” man is so attached to the society that it is very difficult to combat it. Vivian López, Judge in the 18th Civil and Commercial Court, Paraguay

Read our Paraguay case study

A mixed-media image from the Equally Safe project. Featuring a woman laughing, with an overlapping graphic of a map of a region in Paraguay

Global research: Our new research explores what a feminist approach to the safety of journalists might look like, with examples worldwide and recommendations for positive change.

Read the report

Global stories: 6 case studies from Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka showcasing creative solutions – designed by and for women journalists – to the threats they face.

Read the case studies

Intersectional gender guidelines: Practical guidelines to help civil society organisations take an intersectional gender approach to their work on the safety of journalists.

Read the guidelines

User-friendly advocacy tools: Simplify your advocacy with our #JournoSafe AdvoSheets: a series of quick reference guides on States' international obligations to protect journalists.

Read the #AdvoSheets

#JournoSafe Resource Hub: A resource for advocates working on the safety of journalists, collecting international human rights standards, research, manuals, and guidelines in one hub.

Visit the hub

Recommendations

All women’s voices, experiences, needs, and human rights should be at the centre of the actions State and non-State actors undertake to protect journalists.

All measures concerning the safety of journalists should be developed under the assumption that women’s right to freedom of expression is key to ending structural discrimination, historical inequality, and unequal power relations. Discrimination and inequality increase the risks women face for carrying out their journalistic activities.

All stakeholders involved in the safety of journalists should reassess the lens through which the safety of journalists is analysed and therefore used to propose solutions to the different risks faced by women journalists.

Policy makers working to protect women journalists must consider the challenges and violence women face in their private and public spheres.

State actors should tackle impunity for crimes against women journalists. Their strategies for doing so must consider the different forms of violence that women journalists face. They must also remove the barriers that prevent women journalists from accessing justice.