Pakistan: Women Journalists Under The Massive Attack Of Online Trolls. CFWIJ Calls Upon Politicians To Take Concrete Action.

Location: Pakistan, Islamabad
Date: September 2, 2020

Pakistan ranks as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. In addition to the harsh conditions to practice journalism for all genders in the country, being a woman generates an additional set of difficulties to manage. The threats women journalists face include sexual harassment, widespread misogyny, glass-ceiling, verbal attacks and censorships.

Since the foundation of The Coalition for Women in Journalism, we have been closely monitoring numerous cases of violations against women journalists in Pakistan. We created a dedicated page on our website where you can find harrowing stories of attacks as well as the examples of ongoing online harassment campaigns against Pakistani journalists.

Indeed, one of the biggest is an increasing influence of online trolls and the number of various cyber harassment in general. Such harmful activity has been mainly targeting women journalists who challenge the status quo. Even just asking a simple question on social media can lead to people stalking a certain reporter, trolling and calling her bad names. Undoubtedly, it can be traumatic. Now the climate of abuse and threats has been fueled on social media by accounts that are allegedly connected to people belonging to, or professing to be followers of, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. Many women journalists decide to keep going, solely do their job against all odds and ignore the attacks, not to give them extra attention. Yet it is not easy. Not to mention that online attacks may one day trigger real-life danger.

PHOTO CREDIT: HTTPS://WWW.WOMENINTECHPK.COM/PORTFOLIO/

In recent years trolls’ attacks have intensified targeting especially two CFWIJ members – Marvi Sirmed and Gharida Farooqi. Marvi Sirmed flags that she has been exposed to a huge number of online attacks daily and somebody constantly attempts to hack her Twitter account. Gharida Farooqi, couldn’t leave home for many months following the hatred campaign of trolls who were calling her a traitor. These tweets have been allegedly retweeted by official PTI accounts. The reason for that is that she tweeted a CNN story that the New Zealand Christ Church attacker had been to Pakistan once. Another journalist Mehmal Sarfaraz has been receiving abusive, heavily sexual messages, accusing her of giving “sexual favors for money”. These are only a few examples which brutally show what kind of burden women journalists need to bear as a consequence of their profession.

Women in the media are not only targeted for their work, but also their gender. Social media timelines are then barraged with gender-based slurs, threats of sexual and physical violence. These have the potential to incite violence and lead to hate crimes, putting their physical safety at risk.

The Coalition for Women in Journalism has been supporting brave and strong Pakistani journalists in their exhausting battle against trolling and harassment. We regularly publish statements in which we express our strong support for Pakistani journalists and repeatedly call upon the authorities and politicians to tackle this issue properly. Recently CFWIJ has joined hands with Pakistani women journalists in a campaign to combat online violence and hacking attempts against them. Which has been developing online under the hashtag: #AttacksWontSilenceUs. The campaign is aiming to build a sense of community and solidarity among targeted journalists and their supporters. As CFWIJ we also documented in detail the meeting between Pakistani women journalists and the parliament’s standing committee on human rights.

However, we don’t limit ourselves just to the online presence. In July 2019, our delegation met with Human Rights Minister Dr. Shireen Mazari, to present a resolution for the protection of media workers in the country, particularly women journalists. CFWIJ also shared a list of action items and steps that are needed to help address the current climate of abuse, fear and censorship prevalent in the industry. During this visit, our delegates also met with the country’s Federal Ombudsperson to share their concerns on harassment against women journalists in and outside the workplace.

Despite the alarming situation, we can still celebrate milestones on our way to justice. On August 16, Sharmila Faruqui, Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) presented a resolution against the online harassment faced by Pakistani women journalists at the Sindh assembly. She demanded an inquiry into the issue and sought reinstatement of freedom of expression under Article 19 of Pakistan’s constitution. We are thrilled that thanks to Sharmila's enormous effort the resolution has passed and we applaud her actions. It’s a step forward in terms of ensuring safety of women journalists in Pakistan.

While this recent voting was a major success, we cannot afford to be complacent. We do acknowledge that not all of the government or military intends to indulge in such smear campaigns. We also realize that governance and power maintenance is not exactly easy in Pakistan. However, freedom of the press is crucial for development of a democratic society thus appropriate actions in the right direction need to be taken. Unfortunately, despite the numerous and regular calls upon the authorities, they have been remaining mostly silent. We truly hope that from now on the issue of massive online attacks targeting women journalists will be one of the priorities on the political agenda and that the recently passed bill is only the beginning of a wider, positive trend.

I write on our campaign #attackswontsilenceus

“Political parties, their leaders, and particularly those in govt – with regulatory and law-enforcement agencies under them, & material & human resources at their disposal – bear the greatest responsibility.” https://t.co/yncmEOOw4L

— Amber Rahim Shamsi (@AmberRShamsi) August 30, 2020

It needs to be emphasized that we are no longer satisfied with words and promises. We expect concrete action and dedication to this matter from politicians both in the governing or the opposing parties.  

We demand that the ruling PTI:

1) Immediately restrains its members from repeatedly targeting women in the media

2) Sends out a clear message to all party members, supporters and followers, to desist from launching these attacks, whether directly or indirectly

3) Holds all such individuals within the government accountable and act against them

Additionally, we call upon the members of opposition and other political parties to hold the government accountable by ensuring they acknowledge, apologize and list the actions they will now take to put an end to such a threatening environment. It should also be ensured that the same behaviour is not repeated or goes unnoticed by followers of the opposition either. It is the duty of all politicians to protect freedom of the speech and abide the Constitution. We are aware that there are many good and dedicated parliamentarians who have already taken a stand to protect free press, and safety of journalists. We acknowledge this support and hope that together we can work on creating a safe work environment for women journalists.

The Coalition for Women in Journalism strongly denounces aforementioned online threats and attacks and will keep working on making sure the media industry is a safe space for women. We are calling upon lawmakers and representatives elected by the society to join us in this endeavour.

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.