ARTICLE 19 has found that women journalists face pervasive and uniquely gendered risks when carrying out their vital work. Gender-based violence, gendered discrimination, and ‘gendered censorship’ compound the silencing effects of violence, abuse, and harassment that already create environments hostile to journalism, both online and offline.
Under international human rights law, 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 the violation of and to protect and respect their right to freedom of expression, including when they are targeted in connection with their journalistic activities, and with special attention to instances where these reprisals are gendered or based on other protected characteristics like race, nationality, religious belief and others. In our work focusing on developing a feminist approach to the safety of journalists, we have found that women journalists are at exceptional risk when reporting on feminist and gender issues and when they face intersecting oppressions.
Current policies and practices are failing to protect women journalists from the risks they face due to and through their work. A lack of effective protection measures sees many women journalists taking their safety into their own hands, creating community-based measures to keep themselves and their colleagues safe. States need to recognise, support and enable these measures, which include feminist networks of mutual support, and complement them with policy developed alongside – not on behalf of – women journalists that centres their needs.
We call on Member States to strengthen the protection and safety of journalists through taking an intersectional and gendered approach in all relevant Human Rights Council resolutions, and to involve women journalists in creating policies, measures, or tools that affect them.