Press Freedom Status For Women Journalists: August 2022
Sexism and Misogyny Prevalent Against Women In Media
The month of August 2022 underscored yet again that disparaging attitudes towards gender, prevalent in society at large, infiltrate the news media industry as well. In societies that frequently discourage women from speaking up, whether through gendered rhetoric or impunity for gender-based violence, the barriers to entry for women journalists begin before they reach the field. Once they enter the profession, they are cognizant that gender can be weaponized against them at any stage of their career. Women journalists routinely face disproportionate violence, due to both their gender and their reportage.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism reported as many as 23 cases of violations against this month. The undercurrent of misogyny was apparent in nearly all of them. However, while attacks on journalists often go unpunished, gendered attacks on women journalists often also go unnoticed. We emphasize that nearly all cases involving violations against women journalists, including harassment, assaults, organized troll campaigns, threats and intimidation, are deeply gendered. The culture of impunity that is prevalent for violations against journalists is further extended when it comes to crimes against women journalists such as murder, abduction and assault. It also does not go amiss that verbal threats, whether in the virtual or physical space, do not take long before manifesting into physical attacks.
This month, we saw blatantly misogynist hostilities against women journalists unfold in the digital sphere across the world. From Pakistan to Canada, organized online trolls weaponized social media against women journalists in a bid to silence them. The perpetrators of online hate resorted to deeply vile and sexist rhetoric to discredit their targets and direct abuse at them. Despite the issue being highlighted repeatedly, social media conglomerates and the relevant state authorities remained indifferent to online abuse against women journalists further compromising their safety.
The CFWIJ documented patterns of misogyny reflected within newsrooms as well. As in the case of Lisa LaFlamme, a top ranking news anchor, laid off by one of Canada’s largest media groups, seemingly due to her age and “gray hair”. Similarly, we observed that physical assaults on women journalists in Turkey and Afghanistan, threats and intimidation campaigns in Bosnia, in Belarus and in Lebanon, were punctuated with rape threats as well as deeply misogynistic abuse.
Apart from documenting new cases and compiling data indicating that the targets placed on women journalists’ backs seek to eliminate their presence from the public sphere, throughout the month of August, the CFWIJ also followed up on past cases and highlighted ongoing violations in conflict zones around the world. August 2022, marked six months to the war in Ukraine, a 100 days to the brutal killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and a year to the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. Read on below to know more about the kinds of violations women journalists faced this month.
Two Imprisoned Women Journalists Stand Trial
Belarus: Iryna Slavnikova, a former Belsat TV correspondent, was sentenced to five years in prison on August 3, after a regional court in Homel found her guilty of leading an extremist group and organizing activities that disrupt social order. The verdict was announced after a closed-door trial held in June. Iryna has been behind bars since October 2021 as President Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian government continues its onslaught against the independent media. The journalist was jailed along with her husband on charges of distributing extremist materials and vandalism. After a month-long prison sentence ended in November 2021, her husband was released but Iryna was charged and arrested again. Though she had formerly been associated with Belsat TV, which has been banned by the Belarusian interior ministry as an “extremist organization”, at the time of her arrest last October she was a full-time employee of the Polish TV channel TVP. Learn more about her story here
Tajikistan: A closed-door trial for noted human rights defender and independent journalist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva began on August 3 and was held on the premises of the State Committee of National Security’s detention center in Dushanbe. Ulfatkhonim, who has been behind bars since May 18, 2022, faces up to 25 years in prison on different charges including inciting the public for violent change to the country’s constitutional order, organizing a criminal group, murder, attempted murder and terrorism. Ulfatkhonim has reported extensively on social and political conditions in the autonomous Gorno-Badakhshan region. Shortly after her arrest, Tajik state television broadcast a film in which the journalist is purportedly seen admitting to organizing unrest in the region and is accused of receiving foreign funding to do so. Local journalists believe that the alleged confession was taken under duress. Continue reading for more details
Four Women Journalists Faced State Suppression and Legal Harassment
Turkey: A court in Diyarbakır rejected the appeals of four women journalists, who were detained last June, along with 12 other Kurdish journalists after simultaneous police raids on their homes. The detained women journalists include Jin News director Safiye Alagaş, Nese Toprak, Elif Ungur and Remziye Temel. Learn more about their case here
Five Women Journalists Detained
South Sudan: Freelance reporter Diing Magot was detained on August 7, while covering a protest in the capital Juba, on assignment for US Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America. She was released on bail eight days later and is due for a hearing, yet unscheduled, on charges related to her alleged participation in the protest. The authorities retained her phone and recorder reportedly as part of evidence. Learn more details here
Russia: On August 8, police detained Aleksandra Bayazitova, a freelance journalist associated with pro-government media website Life and with a Telegram channel. The latter is a platform in widely-used Russia and Ukraine by independent media outlets to disburse otherwise censored news and by Russian propaganda outlets. Aleksandra’s Telegram channel Adskiye Babki has around 37,000 subscribers and reports on corruption and economic issues. The journalist was charged and accused of extorting money from Promsvyazbank, a Russian state-owned bank, in exchange for not reporting negative information about it. On August 10, the Kuzminsky district court in Moscow ordered Aleksandra detained till October 7, 2022. Aleksandra has denied the charges against her. During her trial, she maintained that is being prosecuted for publishing evidence that Promsvyazbank executives were involved in embezzlement and had stolen federal funds allocated to the military. If convicted, Aleksandra could face up to 15 years in prison. Continue reading here .
Turkey: Photojournalist Zeynep Kuray was obstructed by the police and briefly detained on August 12, while covering a protest by workers of a state-run real estate developer in İstanbul. Police resorted to excessive force to disperse the protesting workers and prevented journalists from covering the events of the day. Zeynep was detained and released roughly two hours later after a complaint was lodged against her for “damaging public property”. Continue reading for further details
Turkey: Diren Yurtsever, a reporter with Mesopotamia News Agency (MA), was arbitrarily detained at İstanbul airport Sabiha Gökçen when she arrived from Diyarbakir late on August 15. The authorities claimed to have a search warrant in her name. The journalist was conditionally released the next morning and summoned to testify before Istanbul Court in Çağlayan within two days. Find more details here.
Guatemala: On August 19, police raided the home of El Periódico newspaper staffer Flora Silva and detained her. The media worker was produced before a court on August 25 and sent to preventive detention. Flora faces criminal charges in connection with an ongoing investigation against the opposition newspaper’s president José Rubén Zamora. Legal proceedings are to continue in November 2022. Read on for more details
Four Women Journalists Faced Online Attacks and Organized Trolling Campaigns
Canada: Online violence against women journalists remains rampant in Canada. On August 2, award-winning journalist Saba Eitizaz shared on Twitter the screenshot of a racially charged and deeply vile email she was sent in retaliation to her work. Saba said she is sent similar emails almost every Friday and demanded an end to the impunity with which women journalists of color in the country are being targeted online. However, over the course of the month, Saba continued to receive misogynistic, deeply sexulized and racist online hate. Continue reading for further details
Pakistan: Gharidah Farooqi was subjected to yet another campaign of organized online trolling after commenting on the undue arrest and alleged torture of former prime minister Imran Khan’s political aide Shahbaz Gill. Gharidah, a vocal critic and staunch journalist, is frequently targeted by vicious organized trolls and this campaign was no different. She was spammed by trolls who resorted to vile and deeply gendered language to insult the journalist and call her credibility into question. Learn more about her story
Canada: Global News reporter Rachel Gilmore remained a frequent target of nationalist organized online trolls throughout August. Her name was repeatedly mentioned in hate emails and messages sent to women journalists of color, including Erica Ifill and Saba Eitezaz. Derogatory and deeply misogynistic comments were directed at Rachel, who is white, in these emails. The sender(s) spoke of a list of their targets and mentioned a harassment campaign designed to silence prominent women journalists in Canada. Read more about violations against Rachel here
Canada: Journalist, economist, anti-racism consultant and The Hill Times columnist Erica Ifill was also targeted by right-wing nationalist organized online trolls. Erica is among several other women journalists of color who continue to face visceral, deeply racist and misogynistic online hate in Canada’s increasingly hostile digital space. On August 23, Erica shared on Twitter screenshots of one of the troll emails as an example of the kind of hate she routinely receives online. Read on for further details
One Woman Journalist Obstructed
Turkey: On August 22, Sultan Eylem Keleş was physically assaulted and obstructed by the police while covering evictions being carried out in Beykoz district, İstanbul, on the pretext of urban development. The district authorities moved against the residents despite a stay order granted to the latter by the courts. Video footage surfaced of protestors and journalists being violently chased away by the police. Find more details here
Two Women Journalists Banned/ Denied Access
Zimbabwe: Danish journalist Camilla Nielsson’s political film documentary “President” was banned by Zimbabwe authorities. According to the country’s censorship board, the film “has the potential to incite violence” as Zimbabwe prepares for presidential election in 2023. Continue reading for further details here
One Woman Journalist Was Laid Off
Canada: Veteran journalist and the country’s top news anchor Lisa LaFlamme was suddenly and unceremoniously dismissed from CTV National News on August 15. Although Bell Media, CTV’s parent company, claims that the lay off was a “business decision”, details surrounding the incident convey otherwise. Internal correspondent and feedback from journalists in the newsroom imply that the decision to dismiss Lisa came down to the anchor’s gray hair and occasions on which she pushed back against Michael Melling, the vice president of news at Bella Media. Learn more about her story here
Three Women Journalists Were Physically Assaulted
Congo: On August 2, reporter Fify Kibwana was physically assaulted by perpetrators, who identified themselves as supporters of President Félix Tshisekedi’s political party Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS). Fify was on court premises in Kinshasa to cover a hearing involving opposition politician Jean-Marc Kabund, who was arrested following his fall out with Tshisekedi. Perpetrators hounded Fify, pushed her, pulled her scarf and verbally threatened her against conducting interviews of activists critical of the incumbent president. Continue reading for more details
Zimbabwe: Pellagia Mpurwa, a reporter for online magazine Technomag, was among four journalists physically assaulted and injured during a political rally in Gokwe on August 25. Pellagia, who suffers from asthma had to be resuscitated after losing consciousness and was shifted to a hospital with a suspected leg fracture, after she and her colleagues were beaten by 10 alleged supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party.
Nigeria: Journalist Nefeesah Vandi was brutally physically assaulted by her estranged husband in late August. The attack left her with multiple injuries and severe trauma. The case underscores that women journalists face disproportionate violence not just because of their work but also their gender. Learn more about her story here
Two Women Journalists Threatened And Intimidated
Lebanon: MTV anchor Dima Sadek was subjected to a fresh wave of threats and intimidation after she posted a satirical post about the recent assassination attempt on renowned novelist Salman Rushdie in the United States. Beginning from August 13, Dima was sent death and rape threats by accounts linked to Hezbollah. Learn more details here
Bosnia And Herzegovina: Balkan Insight investigative reporter Nermina Kuloglija-Zolj and her colleagues were subjected to a threat and intimidation campaign allegedly by the Turkish far-right #GreyWolves group for reporting on its activities in Bosnia. Find further details here
If you would like to request more insight into our findings, or would like to suggest an addition to our work reach out to us at data@womeninjournalism.org. For media inquiries reach out to us at press@womeninjournalism.org.