2024 IPI World Congress and Media Innovation Festival

A pluralistic media landscape – both online and offline – is a prerequisite for democracy, peace and security. Female journalists continue to face a range of threats to their safety that are unique to their gender, impairing their journalistic work and equal contribution to public debate in a democratic society, to the brink of driving them away from the public arena.

Gendered hate speech and disinformation, rampant in digital platforms, intensify hostility toward women journalists. UNESCO and ICFJ research reveals 73% of female journalists face online gender-based violence, with 20% experiencing offline harm linked to online abuse. In addition, the data showed that 41% of them had experienced online violence in the context of orchestrated gendered disinformation campaigns. Partisan media and rising populism exacerbate this peril, demonizing dissenting voices. This trend not only endangers women journalists' safety but also undermines democracy.

This side event at the IPI World Congress will put a particular focus on the safety of female journalists online in the context of prevailing gendered hate speech and disinformation. By illustrating the overarching risks women journalists face in this context, the event will aim to present practical tools to help prevent the escalation of online violence against women journalists, and identify ways forward to empower and protect them from gendered attacks and foster inclusive public spaces.