In December 2022, rabble.ca reported on an alarming rise in the harassment, violence and persecution of women in journalism across the globe.
At the time, we characterized 2022 as an “unprecedented year for press freedom violations.”
Data from the Coalition for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ) found at least 12 women in journalism were murdered in 2022 — a pace of one reporter killed every month.
During the same time period, there were 97 reported incidents of women in journalism being detained by law enforcement, with one-in-three arrests taking place in Iran.
Now, a new report from the coalition paints a devastating picture of the state of women in journalism facing press freedom violations.
Fear of retaliation
According to the CFWIJ, at least 100 women reporters were incarcerated in the first three months of 2023. While that statistic represents a decline of four journalists year-to-year, the coalition makes it clear that “the number should be zero.”
The report pinpointed two main contributors to the decrease in the number of women in journalism being criminalized.
The first is a shift in public awareness around the persecution of journalists, together with stronger protections in certain countries that could prevent police brutality and arbitrary detentions.
The second contributor is more worrisome — self-censorship.
“The overall intimidation of the press in some of the most censored countries has led to self-censorship, resulting in fewer journalists taking risks and more cautious reporting under censorship,” the report reads. “This creates a situation where journalists are unable to report freely and without fear of retaliation, which ultimately affects the quality of the information that is disseminated to the public.”
Harassment on the rise
While fewer women in journalism spent the first quarter of the year behind bars compared to 2022, the report shows a startling rise in physical and legal harassment against female reporters during the same time period.
Between January 1 and March 31, 24 women journalists were physically assaulted while in the field, and another 23 faced harassment. The CFWIJ calls the increase a “transnational repression.”
Of the 24 assaults against women in journalism, six took place in Turkiye. Reporters there were covering the aftermath of the February earthquakes considered to be the deadliest in the country’s history.
Meanwhile, four journalists were assaulted in Georgia during protests in March — one of them hit by tear gas.
While reporting on the recent Nigerian election, five women journalists were assaulted, chased out of polling stations, and forced to surrender their phones.
Other violations were recorded in Albania, France, Ukraine, Palestine and Germany.
“Physical assaults on women journalists have a detrimental impact on press freedom,” the report continues. “When women journalists are assaulted, they suffer not only emotionally and physically but the attack or the fear of being attacked can deter them from reporting entirely.”
Reporter alleges wrongful termination
While the dangers of journalism are often found in the field, one reporter is shining a light on the abuses that take place behind closed doors — in the newsroom itself.
Anchor and international correspondent Saima Mohsin was covering the latest on Israel and Palestine for CNN U.K. when a serious injurychanged her life forever. Her cameraman crushedher footwith their jeep, causing extensive soft tissue damage and severe neuropathic pain.
Mohsin pushed through and continued her foreign correspondence work. But the pain persisted, and she was eventually forced to ask her employer for disability accommodations. According to Mohsin, CNN would not budge.
That is, until Mohsin found out her contract at CNN had been terminated in 2017, while she was on medical leave.
Earlier this month, Mohsin took CNN to court, arguing she faced racial discrimination and was unfairly fired after suffering the injury.
“We risk our lives in the field trusting we’ll be taken care of,” Mohsin noted in a tweet.
She told The Guardian,”I worked hard to become an international correspondent and loved my job with CNN.” “I risked my life many times on assignment for CNN believing they would have my back. They did not.”
According to Moshin, her boss told her “You don’t have the look we are looking for,” when she asked to switch to anchoring rather than doing correspondence in the field with her injury.
Her claim against CNN UK covers acts of racism, as well as gender and ethnicity pay gap issues in the company.
CNN has denied Mohsin’s claims of unfair treatment and has argued the Employment Tribunal has no jurisdiction over her case.
“This argument raises an important concern for foreign correspondents,” the CFWIJ writes, “as it questions where they can seek justice and redress if they encounter disputes with their employer.”
Reporter Kiran Nazish, who also serves as the CFWIJ director, says it’s clear that Mohsin “has been treated unfairly and uncompassionately.”
“Journalists, women, colored or otherwise, take great risks to be on the frontline of a very precarious world that needs coverage,” Nazish said in a July 10 release. “When CNN says we ‘Go There,’ it is their correspondents who are risking their lives to be on the frontline.”
“There is no journalism without a journalist who is safe and supported by their employers,” she noted.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
