Pakistan: Trolls Target Women Journos In Pakistan, Ahead Of Elections

The Coalition for Women in Journalism has noticed with grave concern the online threats and harassment women journalists in Pakistan face while doing their jobs.

As Election 2018 approaches, these online attacks are intensifying. While both male and female journalists face harassment online, women are particular targets of sexually explicit comments and threats of rape.

Trolls call them names that are psychologically traumatizing. Some terminologies we have identified as common and disturbing includes words like ‘prostitute,’ ‘slut,’ whore,’ and ‘lifafa journalist,’ which in Urdu — Pakistan’s national language — means, journalists who take bribes to serve a political or corporate agenda, and ‘traitor’ is another common word used by trolls. But we have noticed when these words are used to attack women journalists online, they are linked with other sexually explicit terms.

In some instances, we have documented trolls copy-pasting faces of female journalists on sexually explicit images, at times pornographic images. There have been many threats of murder and rape, specifically targeting women journalists. In the most recent example, journalist Asma Shirazi — who is also a member of CFWIJ Pakistan — faced vitriolic comments online because she interviewed Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif who is now in jail for corruption. The interview was part of her regular journalistic work, as she was on the airplane, along with other journalists, when Nawaz Sharif was making the journey from London to Pakistan.Rameeza Nizami, publisher of Nawa-e-Waqt group, a newspaper in Pakistan, also faced online attacks.

In June, we identified an array of online trolls against BBC Urdu journalist Iram Abbasi as well, that were vitriolic, and graphic. All these trolls targeted her gender. We were able to have these taken down with the help of allies in Facebook and Twitter. We have observed that a majority of these trolls are supporters of political parties and political leaders. To target journalists for doing their job during an election campaign is an obstruction to public access to information at a critical time in the democratic process. No journalist should have to face harassment for doing their job. We encourage all stakeholders to join efforts to make reporting a safe endeavour for women journalists.

The Coalition urges all political parties in Pakistan to call upon their supporters to refrain from such behaviour. We also call upon our male colleagues to support their female counterparts online. We were happy to see some male journalists tweeting for Asma Shirazi and defending her. This kind of support is crucial to making journalism a safe and valuable profession for women.

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The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world, and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.

Follow us on Instagram @womeninjournalism and Twitter @CFWIJ.

Our website is WomenInJournalism.org and we can be reached at press@womeninjournalism.org