Overview

An inclusive guide to online safety

As part of API’s partnership with IWMF, experts share tools and trends in online safety — a constantly-evolving challenge that impacts newsrooms around the world. IWMF Executive Director Elisa Lees Muñoz outlines the challenges journalists face when it comes to online harassment.

Understanding online violence against women and nonbinary journalists

In today’s digital world, journalists’ careers often rely on their online presence. But Photo of Elisa Lees Muñoz, IWMF Executive Director newsrooms must also face the harsh reality that many women journalists endure near constant harassment, abuse and threats online: nearly two thirds of journalists said they’d been threatened or harassed online at least once in their career.

The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) breaks barriers for women and nonbinary journalists — and that includes keeping them safe. Since 2020 we’ve been working full force to change the culture around online violence, asserting that it is real violence with real-world consequences for journalists’ wellbeing as well as press freedom at large.

The IWMF is proud to have worked with more than 40 newsrooms to improve their policies and procedures around online violence (you can learn about that work in our Newsroom Policy Guide!); now, we’re thrilled to be sharing that knowledge with API’s newsrooms.

"Women journalists can't navigate online violence alone, and newsrooms have a duty of care to protect their journalists from online abuse."Our research found that 70% of women journalists experienced more than one type of harassment, threat or attack in the past, and nearly one third have considered leaving the profession due to online threats and attacks. 

Anecdotally, we know these attacks disproportionately impact journalists of color and LGBTQI+ journalists. A 2019 survey of women and gender non-conforming journalists found that less than half had received safety training, and online harassment was cited as the biggest threat by 90% of respondents in the U.S. and 71% in Canada. In order to cultivate diverse news organizations where marginalized groups feel supported and safe, it’s imperative that newsroom leaders proactively protect those most affected by online harassment. 

We are pleased to partner with API to offer resources, tips, research and learning opportunities to improve your digital security and protect your colleagues. Visit IWMF to access more support.

— Elisa Lees Muñoz, IWMF Executive Director

Where to start

For journalists:

  • The Coalition Against Online Violence offers an online violence response hub that offers immediate support for a variety of scenarios including doxxing, problems with online accounts and receiving online abuse, as well as ways to prepare for online attacks.
  • IWMF offers multilingual training for journalists, including courses on knowing your trolls and online privacy.

For newsrooms:

  • The IWMF’s News Safety Cohort is a new opportunity to help international newsrooms create policies for protecting journalists online. The IWMF provides safety training for newsrooms and journalism associations that are tailored to journalists’ holistic needs. Building on that existing training model, this new international support network will receive customized training in addition to peer networking, access to new resources and opportunities for 1:1 consultations.
  • This IWMF report examines the professional dangers of being a woman journalist and offers recommendations newsrooms can take to better support freedom of expression and the work of women journalists and media workers worldwide.
  • The Coalition Against Online Violence also has resources for newsroom leaders who need help protecting their journalists or implementing preventative steps against online violence.

What others are doing

About the IWMF: Our work ensures journalists have the support they need to prepare for, navigate and recover from an online attack. Understanding that online abusers disproportionately target journalists from historically marginalized communities, we design identity-conscious, trauma-informed digital safety trainings which have supported more than 1,350 journalists in the past three years. We also convened more than 70 organizations striving to create better solutions for online abuse against women journalists through our Coalition Against Online Violence and subsequently launched the Online Violence Response Hub to aggregate leading resources and aid for journalists, newsrooms and their allies.

Chapter 2

Understanding online violence against women and nonbinary journalists

Where to start

For journalists:

  • The Coalition Against Online Violence offers an online violence response hub that offers immediate support for a variety of scenarios including doxxing, problems with online accounts and receiving online abuse, as well as ways to prepare for online attacks.
  • IWMF offers multilingual training for journalists, including courses on knowing your trolls and online privacy.

For newsrooms:

  • The IWMF’s News Safety Cohort is a new opportunity to help international newsrooms create policies for protecting journalists online. The IWMF provides safety training for newsrooms and journalism associations that are tailored to journalists’ holistic needs. Building on that existing training model, this new international support network will receive customized training in addition to peer networking, access to new resources and opportunities for 1:1 consultations.
  • This IWMF report examines the professional dangers of being a woman journalist and offers recommendations newsrooms can take to better support freedom of expression and the work of women journalists and media workers worldwide.
  • The Coalition Against Online Violence also has resources for newsroom leaders who need help protecting their journalists or implementing preventative steps against online violence.

What others are doing

Chapter 3

Five tips for protecting yourself online

IWMF Ela Stapley

The arrival of social media led to opportunities for women journalists to share their work widely and to connect with new audiences, but it also made them more vulnerable to online abuse. While building their brand online, they inadvertently shared a significant amount of personal data about themselves. This data is now being used by online abusers to harass them and prevent them from doing their work. While there is an important role for media outlets to play in protecting staff, journalists can also take steps to secure their information online.

Prevention is key when it comes to protecting yourself against an online attack. The more you can do in advance to secure your information, the safer you will be. Here are my top five tips for better protecting yourself online.

Tip 1: Know what data is best kept offline

Some forms of data are best kept private. This includes information that can be used to verify your identity, such as your date of birth. Other data that is best kept offline include personal contact details, such as your phone number, as well as location information, including your home address. 

Tip 2: Look yourself up online

Know what the internet says about you by doing an online search for your name and other personal data, such as your address. Use different search engines, not just Google, to obtain different results. Check phone and video results, too.

Tip 3: Sign up to get your data removed from databroker sites

Your personal data is likely being collected by databroker sites where online abusers can pay to obtain your data. Subscription services such as Abine Delete Me will remove your data from these sites.

Tip 4: Secure your accounts

Protect against hacking by turning on two-factor authentication and ensuring you have long, complex passwords which are different on each account. Use a password manager such as 1password to generate and store unique passwords. 

Tip 5: Speak with family and friends

Ensure your family and friends know what data you are happy having shared online and what data you want kept private.

— Ela Stapley, IWMF Digital Security Advisor

TRY IT OUT NOW 

 In 30 seconds:Two-factor authentication is an extra layer of security for accounts. It is best to turn 2FA on for all accounts where possible. An app or security key are more secure options than SMS.
In 5 minutes:

Review the content you have online by looking up your name on all search engines and checking what can be publicly seen on your social media accounts. Take note of all information that makes you vulnerable to an attack.

DIG DEEPER

  • Best practices for digital security change every day. Attackers are always finding new ways to harass, and we find new ways to respond. Sign up for newsletters about digital safety, technology and other related news. 
  • Review self-guided courses for keeping your personal information safe online. 
    • Know your trolls helps journalists identify the abuse they are receiving online and who may be behind it as well as strategies that may help journalists to be better prepared.
    • Keep it private provides journalists with practical tips on how to better protect themselves and their families.
    • Digital Safety Snacks is a collaboration between IWMF, PEN America and ONA that covers doxing, hacking, secure communications and security settings on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Chapter 4

How newsrooms can support women and nonbinary journalists

Newsrooms have a duty of care to support staff from online violence. For too long, journalists have endured constant harassment, resulting in serious implications for press freedom and creating a culture of silence that results in inadequate support for both staff and freelancers.  

Since 2020, the IWMF has worked with more than 40 newsrooms around the world to improve their policies and procedures around online violence. This week, we’re sharing some lessons-learned from newsroom leaders and a step-by-step plan to tackle online violence from our resource, “A Guide to Protecting Newsrooms and Journalists Against Online Violence.”

“The anxiety caused by online violence affects journalists far beyond those who have been attacked,” says Danny Gawlowski, assistant managing editor of the Seattle Times.”Before doing this work, I did not fully understand how concerned our newsroom staff was about how newsroom leadership would respond if they were attacked and whether they would be supported. Creating a plan and being transparent about that plan ending up being a huge relief to staff.”                

“Push back on online violence by changing workflows,” said Patrick Boehler, leader of the digital strategy at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “There are often alternative ways to communicate with audiences that don’t expose individuals to online abuse. Newsrooms can structure conversations with the public differently to make them more constructive.”  

“Newsrooms can better support their journalists by accessing professional help that enables them to plan ahead and to make informed decisions about how to deal with the abuse and what happens after the abuse has been documented,” said Mia Malan, editor-in-chief and executive director at Bhekisisa, a public health newsroom based in South Africa “What would an appropriate response look like and what measures should be put in place to provide peer support once the online abuse has occurred. It was useful for us to look at what other newsrooms are doing, but we were shocked to find out how few newsrooms have any policies in place to deal with online abuse. Newsrooms should clearly define what constitutes trauma and how to support journalists who may need to go through mental health counseling.”

BUILD A PLAN

1️⃣ Raise awareness of online violence. Online abuse disproportionately affects women and diverse journalists who often do not hold upper management positions and may be reluctant to report harassment. As a result, management may be unaware of the damage online attacks are doing both to staff and to the media outlet. By raising awareness of what online violence is and how it impacts staff and press freedom, the newsroom will be in a better place to protect against it.

2️⃣ Share a staff survey. An anonymous survey can help management to understand the scale of the problem, which allows the newsroom to create the policies needed to address the issue and barriers to supporting staff.

3️⃣ Help staff protect data by sharing a checklist. Checklists can be a useful way to help staff better protect their online data. Not only do they provide employees with clear steps on what to do, but they also show how staff can start to protect personal information

4️⃣ Carry out risk assessments. An assessment document can help mitigate risk. Upon completion of the risk assessment, journalists will know what steps they need to take to secure their online data and protect their accounts, as well as who in the newsrooms should be notified after abuse.

5️⃣ Create a reporting and escalation policy. Reporting and escalation policies give clarity to both managers and journalists on what to do and who to speak to should there be a serious incident of online harassment. The policy should state clearly what types of abuse a journalist should report, who to report the abuse to and what will happen once it has been reported.

DIG DEEPER

  • Join IWMF’s News Safety Cohort! This is a new opportunity to help international newsrooms create policies for protecting journalists online. Building on our existing training model, this new international support network will receive customized training in addition to peer networking, access to new resources and opportunities for 1:1 consultations. The deadline for the first cohort is April 17. The program is free for newsrooms, and the application takes about 5 minutes.
  • A Guide to Protecting Newsrooms and Journalists Against Online Violence contains a step-by-step process to help newsrooms mitigate risk, raise awareness, develop policies and issue statements of support on behalf of journalists. 

Chapter 5

The impact of online violence on journalists’ mental health

Online violence is often only considered a digital safety issue, but the impact of online Black-and-white image of Ana Zellhuberabuse on journalists’ mental health has serious consequences for their lives, work and press freedom as a whole. This is particularly true for women and diverse journalists, who are disproportionately targeted by online attacks. Time and time again, women journalists told us that access to more mental health support was vital for combating the effects of online violence. The culture of silence around online violence and mental health has made it difficult for journalists to get long-term practical help.

When we created A Mental Health Guide for Journalists Facing Online Violence, we wanted to give journalists the tools to control a psychological emergency and recognize the symptoms of generalized anxiety, acute stress, PTSD and depression. The exercises in the guide help journalists assess the level of threat and psycho-emotional response they are having as a result of online abuse. 

Online violence can be devastating for the mental, emotional and physical health of journalists. Oftentimes, the victims of online violence feel all areas of their lives are upended by an attack. The guide gives them the tools to be back in control. Women and nonbinary journalists are resilient, and with the right support, they can manage the situation and reclaim their lives. 

News organizations are a key part of the solution to support freelancers and staff.  A journalist being targeted needs to know they are not alone.

– Ana Zellhuber, Psychoanalyst and specialist in emergency psychology, author of “A Mental Health Guide for Journalists Facing Online Violence”

WHERE TO START 

In our mental health guide, we provide journalists with user-friendly exercises they can use when they are subjected to online violence. Anti-stress techniques help us regain control of our brain by halting the production of adrenaline and allowing us to assess the situation calmly. 

MORE RESOURCES 

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