‘Turkey is the leading country in terms of physical assaults on women journalists’

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Yesterday, November 25, 2021, was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. 

On this occasion, the Coalition for Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) has called on the international community to recognize that for women journalists, job hazards and gender-based violence often amount to the same thing.

Accordingly, the CFWIJ has joined hands with the United Nations (UN) to demand that the global community "Orange the World, End Violence Against Women Now!" and kicked off the annual 16 Days of Activism campaign to call attention to crimes against women journalists.

In the first 11 months of 2021 alone, the CFWIJ documented more than 790 cases of violence against women journalists across the world.

The Coalition recorded violations ranging from murder, assault, assault, legal harassment, assault abductions, deeply gendered organized troll campaigns and harassment. Nearly all violations against women journalists carried misogynistic gendered undertones.

Among the 790 cases reported across the world, at least 11 women journalists were killed, 127 women journalists were physically assaulted in the field, 164 women journalists faced prosecution for their work and at least 88 were subjected to organized slander campaigns, often by politically charged trolls.

Moreover, 103 women journalists were detained or arrested, 77 faced various obstructions in the field, including state-backed violence, sexual harassment and assault, 57 women journalists were expelled from their employer news organizations, 49 faced some form of threat or intimidation and 11 were subjected to direct state oppression.

Elaborating on physical assaults against women journalists, the CFWIJ has noted, "As of November 25, 2021, Turkey is the leading country with at least 47 cases of physical assaults. Georgia follows Turkey with 16 cases. CFWIJ documented nine cases of physical assault in Peru."

The Coalition has also shared the following infograph:

Other details from the report are as follows:

"Perpetrators of violence against women journalists aren't always politically motivated though. Nor are they limited to the state or the powerful.

"As many as 26 women journalists faced some form of workplace harassment in 2021. At least 24 women journalists were sexually harassed on the job, 17 were subjected to verbal harassment, three had their accredition revoked and three were abducted.

"Moreover, at least three women journalists faced sexist attacks and eight of them were targeted with racially motivated attacks.

By our estimates, at least two women journalists across the world are targeted every day. Women journalists are forced to overcome not only challenges pervasive in the industry - low pay, long and isolating work days, state oppression, attacks on independent media - but also have to face barriers to entry and equal pay.

"Once in the newsroom, or in the journalism community, they frequently encounter discrimination. When attacked, obstructed or threatened for their reportage, the violations against women journalists target not just their work but also their gender.

"This disproportionate and deeply gendered nature of violence against women journalists is not restricted to any one country or region but sexist attitutes span across the world." (EMK/SD)

* Click here for the full report