Online abuse of women journalists

South Yorkshire Police campaign and the importance of police working collaboratively with journalism to combat online crime against women in the industry. By Rebecca Whittington

South Yorkshire Police campaign and the importance of police working collaboratively with journalism to combat online crime against women in the industry.

“It was definitely targeted at me. Because I am a journalist and because I’m a woman.”

These words, spoken on a new campaign video issued today (Monday November 25) by South Yorkshire Police (SYP), will resonate with hundreds of women working in our industry who have been faced with online violence simply because of their gender and the job they do.

In this specific instance, a journalist for Reach, the UK’s largest commercial publisher, was sent unsolicited extreme pornographic content without her consent. The images, videos and gifs were paired with vile misogynistic language and appeared to have been sent with the intention of intimidation and sexual gratification. Such activities are now classed as criminal under the Online Safety Act, which came into force just over a year ago.

The Know More campaign, launched to coincide with International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women tackles the issue of Online Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), with the intent of not only educating the public around the impact and criminality of offences such as cyber stalking, threats and cyberflashing, but also with the intent to arm its officers with knowledge around application of the law through training and resources.

Earlier this year SYP approached me to ask for input from Reach into the issues faced by women working in journalism. Their campaign officers had seen the research we published in conjunction with Women in Journalism in 2023 which showed three-quarters of women had experienced some kind of threat to their safety in connection to their work as journalists and that 25 per cent had been subjected to sexual violence or harassment. Half of the respondents said they promoted their work less due to the threat of online harm and a fifth of the respondents said they had considered leaving journalism altogether.

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