40 cases of violations against women journalists in October: Coalition for Women in Journalism

To highlight the “double persecution” that women journalists face because of their gender and reportage, the Coalition For Women In Journalism published a report on October 31 chronicling cases of violations against women journalists reporting from different parts of the world.

The report, titled “Press Freedom Status for Women Journalists: October 2021”, documented 40 such cases across the world. The organisation found that the leading trends in violations against women journalists are physical assault, organized troll campaigns, and legal harassment.

Cases were documented from several countries including the United States, Kazakhstan, Italy, Canada, Turkey, and Russia. At least 19 women journalists were physically assaulted in Turkey, Italy, Kosovo and Palestine last month, six were targeted with organised troll campaigns in Canada and Pakistan, and seven were legally harassed in Russia and Turkey.

India did not feature in the report.

Turkey led the list in October with at least 14 female reporters subjected to violence in the country. The report also noted that while the Middle East and North African region were the “most dangerous since the beginning of the year”, accounting for 40 percent of the cases, Europe was close behind at 35 percent.

CFWIJ is an international non-profit that engages in mentorship and advocacy work targeting women journalists. In the report, the organisation said that the aim of documenting the harassment and intimidation of female journalists around the world was to help highlight the various challenges they face.

The report said, “The government pays no attention to complaints of threats and officials are often seen justifying the intimidation of journalists, which serves to normalise these attacks on press freedom.”