The Russian government announced it has added 14 new journalists from the United Kingdom to its blacklist, barring them from the country.

Marianna Spring has become the primary target of online abuse directed at the BBC, accounting for a staggering 80% of the total abusive comments leveled at the corporation.

Marianna Spring, an award-winning reporter covering disinformation and social media for BBC News was subjected to incessant online trolling. The journalist faced a barrage of hateful comments for her reporting on the conspiracy theories that were being promoted around the covid19 pandemic. Marianna said that she was bombarded with horrific abuse and threats. CFWIJ condemns this toxic culture of intimidating women journalists online. This dangerous trend has now prevailed all over in our online spaces and has made it hard to engage in civic discourse. We once again urge social media tech giants to come up with some solution to end this pattern of online harassment against women journalists.

Marianna Spring, a specialist reporter covering disinformation and social media for the BBC and BBC World Service has been targeted by vicious online attacks over her recent coverage on conspiracy theories regarding Covid-19 and “anti-mask” movement.