Safety of journalists is the ability of journalists and media professionals to receive, produce and share information without facing physical or moral threats.
Journalists can face violence and intimidation for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression. The range of threats they are confronted with include murder, kidnapping, hostage-taking, offline and online harassment, intimidation, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and torture. Women journalists also face specific dangers and are specially vulnerable to sexual assault, whether in the form of a targeted sexual violation, often in reprisal for their work; mob-related sexual violence aimed against journalists covering public events; or the sexual abuse of journalists in detention or captivity. Many of these crimes are not reported as a result of powerful cultural and professional stigmas."[1][2]
Increasingly, journalists, and particularly women journalists, are facing abuse and harassment online, such as hate speech, cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking, doxing, trolling, public shaming, intimidation and threats.[3][2]
- ^ "UN PLAN OF ACTION ON THE SAFETY OF JOURNALISTS AND THE ISSUE OF IMPUNITY" (PDF). UNESCO. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
- ^ a b World Trends Report in Freedom of Expression and Media Development Global Report 2017/2018 (PDF). UNESCO. 2018.
- ^ "The Chilling: global trends in online violence against women journalists; research discussion paper". unesdoc.unesco.org. UNESCO. 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2024.