How India Is Becoming Dangerous For Women Journalists

Location: India
Date: May 1, 2018

The Coalition For Women In Journalism has been observing an unprecedented amount and types of threats to women journalists in India, especially in the last two quarters.

We request the international community of journalists to show solidarity and support for women journalists in India, and pressure the government of India, the media industry including newsrooms to take special steps to protect women journalists from mental, physical and life threats.

What happens first, the threats or the murder? How much of online threat is too much? What happens when threats take a toll on journalists? There is no order. These are just some of the anxieties our colleagues in India are facing.

Gauri Lankesh was murdered last year after a series of online and offline threats. We are concerned about the safety of women journalists who are getting threats today.

Working as a woman journalist in India is becoming increasingly difficult. We have observed a significant increase of vicious online threats under the current government of Narendra Modi.

The latest trolls and online attacks on our friend and colleague Rana Ayyub have gotten much worse, causing her great distress. Although Rana has faced threats for many years since her book Gujrat Files was published, she told us that this was a “very traumatic time’. The UN experts now say, her life could be at risk. We call for the Indian government to ensure safety to her life and well-being.

Our member Neha Dixit was targeted by officials and lawmakers, as well as online trolls with invisible identity after publishing “a five-part investigation on how the Sangh Parivar flouted every Indian and international law on child right to traffic 31 young tribal girls from Assam to Punjab and Gujarat to ‘Hinduise’ them.”Earlier this year the little known crime reporter Rachna Khaira of the Tribune News Service wrote an expose about a major privacy breach in a database that contained information about more than 1 billion Indians. As a direct result of her reporting, officials retaliated with a police complaint against her, accusing Khaira, and her newspaper of forgery, including other offenses punishable by 30 years in jail.

We at the Coalition For Women In Journalism have started noticing an unprecedented increase of threats to women journalists in India.

Last year, editor of The Newsminute, Dhanya Rajendran, got trolled and demanded a safe online space for women. Another journalist Rega Jha, Editor, Buzzfeed India; and Meena Kandasamy, author are among the women journalists who have faced vicious sexual abuse online.

Priyanka Borpujari, a freelance journalist was arrested and kept in prison for hours, for documenting a protest. She was later released when journalists in solidarity — including us — raised noise against her arrest, on social media and on the ground.But despite condemnations the threats continue.

This is exhausting for women journalists in India, who should be spending their time in the public service they intend to do as reporters, instead of finding ways to keep safe.

We denounce such online and offline hate campaign against women journalists and urge friends and colleagues internationally to demand a tolerant and diverse social media space.We call for an investigation of twitter accounts that carry out these threats.

We demand these accounts of social media trolls, once identified, be disabled on the basis of being false and dangerous.On the World Press Freedom Index, India has fallen to 136th in 2017, according to Reporters Without Borders, as self-censorship and Hindu nationalists trying to purge “anti-nationalist” thought is increasing. That drops India below Pakistan, Afghanistan and Burma/Myanmar.

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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

The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.

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