North Macedonia: CFWIJ Demands Journalist Tanja Milevska’s Safety After Being Targeted By Gender-Based Hate Speech
Location: North Macedonia
Date: January 4, 2021
Brussels based journalist Tanja Milevska was targeted by gender-based online trolling. The journalist was threatened after responding to a misogynistic thread about the gaming community. The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) is utterly dismayed by the vicious attacks against Tanja. We urge authorities to investigate these online smear campaigns as these threats can have severe consequences.
Journalist Tanja Milevska has been the target of an ongoing online smear campaign since the beginning of 2021. She came under fire after revealing the misogynistic threads about the gaming community on her Twitter account. Speaking to the CFWIJ, Tanja referred to the community as one of the most aggressive towards women and minorities. She added that she was targeted with gender-based online attacks for five days following her response.
Starting the year with men from 🇲🇰 inciting violence against me (again) for having tweeted about toxic masculinity. It's been about 4 days now, non stop. Looks like @EFJEUROPE @CFWIJ and others will be hearing from me again this year, unfortunately. pic.twitter.com/rXX1pJVwHE
— Tanja M (@MilevskaTanja) January 1, 2021
“The tweet I screenshotted says that I'm asking to be raped. Because obviously, I continued writing about the abuse. They thought I would withdraw after the first wave of attacks, which I didn't.” she asserted.
This incident is not Tanja’s first experience with online trolling. The journalist took to Twitter in July 2020 to expose the threats and harassment she faced online following her coverage of the election campaign in North Macedonia. The attacks stemmed from Tanja’s coverage of the statements made by Zoltán Kovács, international spokesperson for the Hungarian Government.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism stands in solidarity with Tanja Milevska and all journalists who have faced online trolling and hateful rhetoric. We call upon governments to take necessary measures to ensure the safety of journalists. Once again, we remind the authorities that online threats can carry severe consequences. We documented more than 80 incidents of online harassment against women journalists in 2020. We remain deeply concerned about the threats they face.
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.