Anna Junker Receives Hateful Emails As Country Sees Fresh Wave Of Online Abuse Against Women Journalists

Threats
Written By 
Location: Canada, Alberta
Date: February 3, 2022

Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Sun reporter Anna Junker was sent vile and abusive hate emails from a singular email account. She is the fourth woman journalist in the country to face online abuse in the past week. On Wednesday, Anna took to Twitter to share one of the five hateful emails she received in recent days. The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the fresh spate of online abuse against women journalists based in Canada. It does not go amiss that these attacks come shortly after right-wing politician Maxime Bernier’s incendiary tweet against members of the press. 

Anna, who reports on the Covid-19 pandemic and crime for the Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Sun, posted on Twitter the contents of a hateful email she was sent. She wrote that she had received five of such emails, containing expletives and abuse. 

 
 
 
 

The sender did not refer to any specific journalistic work of Anna’s but accused her of being part of a “satanist pedophile crime syndicate”. Similar abusive emails were sent to journalists Rachel Gilmore, Mercedes Stephenson and Brandi Morin in the past week. 

Rachel reported online harassment shortly after their employer publication Global News published a report on an anti-vax protest organized by far right groups in Ottawa. Bernier shared the news article on Twitter with a hostile message.


When members of the press condemned Bernier’s post and expressed support for Rachel and her colleague, the politician went a step further and accused journalists of being “liars, haters and abusers”.

After one of Barnier’s tweets positioned journalists as liars and accused them of “slandering decent people”, Mercedes, the Ottawa Bureau Chief at Global News, drew attention to the onslaught of hate that she received from accounts purportedly related to the organizers of the protests.

Brandi and Anna were the third and fourth journalists to be targeted with hateful emails in the past week. Whether the perpetrators behind these attacks were all emboldened by Bernier’s hostile rhetoric is not immediately clear but it is notable that women journalists were threatened online in a similar fashion last year after Bernier instigated his followers against them. The slew of hate against journalists affiliated with Global News after the publication reported on protests against vaccine mandates for public servants, cross-border truckers and Canadian travellers is extremely condemnable. Journalists should not be targeted for informing the public and simply doing their jobs. We stand in solidarity with Anna Junker, Rachel Gilmore, Mercedes Stephenson and Brandi Morin and demand an immediate probe into these attacks. We call on the Canadian authorities to identify and penalize the perpetrators of these attacks and on social media companies to actively ensure that the digital space is safe for women journalists. 

 

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.

If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.

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