The prevalence of gender-based violence online for female journalists is all too common. In this month's column from the Dart Centre, Trina McLellan reveals some tips for protecting yourself from such threats, gleaned from working with journalists across the Asia-Pacific region.
In an age of growing discontent and disruption, journalists everywhere are finding themselves increasingly the target of sometimes unfair, untrue, incorrect, ill-informed or even cruel accusations that are facilitated, even exaggerated, by online and social media technology.
From cyberbullying, hate speech, cyberstalking, doxxing and online impersonation to image-based abuse, online gender and sexual harassment, hacking and sextortion, newsroom personnel are not immune from this distracting and potentially destructive messaging.
While many might initially brush off such accusations, unwarranted or sustained negativity can, and does, spill over into real life harassment, with direct threats made to media workers or indirectly to their loved ones.
In some cases, online harassment even translates to actual physical violence or sees journalists walking away from their careers, in the process worsening any vicarious trauma impact.
As working journalists across Victoria can attest, sometimes this sort of digital onslaught sees even prominent media workers remove themselves from social media engagement for a period of time, or permanently, effectively silencing their voices.
Some opt to change careers while others are significantly affected, personally and professionally, by harmful, uninvited and disturbing digital content.
While no gender is spared this risk, the greater exposure and impact has been on those individuals who identify as women or gender diverse.
A 2020 global study of online violence against women journalists – conducted by the International Center for Journalists’ Dr Julie Posetti and Nabeelah Shabbir – shone a light on this disturbing issue that, four years on, remains live for many in newsrooms right across the Asia Pacific.
They found nearly three-quarters of 1,210 women journalists had experienced online abuse, harassment, threats and attacks. At the same time, 20 per cent reported offline abuse and attacks that they believed sprang from what is now referred to as technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV).
Based in Melbourne, the Dart Centre Asia Pacific (DCAP) is addressing the issue of TFGBV by both conducting further research around this topic while running timely training across the region.
DCAP runs both in-person and online outreach activities that prioritise media workers having greater control over any harmful incoming messages while maintaining their professional digital presence.
Over the past six months, DCAP – working with 14 journalists in a Google News Initiative-funded initiative – has run monthly weekend webinars where participants from across the Asia Pacific have shared their lived experiences of TFGBV and discussed practical ways to lessen its impact.
Amantha Perera – a Sri Lankan-born journalist living and working in Melbourne – was DCAP’s project lead for this initiative and facilitated the six online workshops.
“We’d meet for three to four hours on the last Saturday of the month, for six months,” he explained.
“The group found its feet after a couple of sessions because a safe space was created, effectively they created their own peer-support network and that will continue on.”
Participants also heard from:
- DCAP’s CEO, Dr Erin Smith, who emphasised the need for awareness and self-care when working in digital spaces
- ABC’s Nicolle White, who shared insights around her online wellbeing role and the kind of more common threats (including a pre-deployment program to prevent doxxing)
- Indian journalist and researcher Srishti Jiswal, who spoke of her experience being exposed to trolling and threats stemming from religious extremism.
Towards the end of the program, the participants curated what they had learned and shared as a practical, two-page tip sheet before translating this into 10 local languages so that these suggestions could be readily shared in newsrooms where English might not be widely spoken.
These tips for protecting against TFGBV were broadly clustered into five groups:
- Be social-media savvy
- Bolster your cybersecurity
- Document and report TFGBV
- Know when to engage
- Build a trauma-informed community of support.
In the very near future, this full tip sheet – and its translations – will be available via the Dart Centre Asia Pacific web page.
Meanwhile, in a separate initiative – thanks to $30,000 in funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) – DCAP has been formulating a special educational program for Indonesian media workers to be delivered by a local non-government organisation, Yayasan Pulih. As part of this initiative, DCAP is providing the NGO with:
- content for 10 in-person training modules that will be delivered locally by Yayasan Pulih, in language, in sessions spread over two days
- trauma-informed trainer notes
- TFGBV curriculum that will form part of the package.
At the end of September, 2024, DCAP will celebrate 20 years of service to newsrooms and media workers in Australia and throughout the Asia Pacific.
However, as a small, not-for-profit charity, DCAP continues to be dependent on funding coming from external sources to keep going with its work. If you or your organisation would like to support DCAP, or engage its services, please contact Dr Erin Smith.
In Victoria, DCAP will soon hold a weekend trauma and journalism retreat for Australia’s regional media workers on October 4, 5 and 6. Places in this program are limited to 12 participants and applications close on August 31.
By Dart Centre Asia Pacific chair Trina McLellan