United States: Disinformation And Journalists' Safety Concerns Are Dominating The Electoral Scene In The Us.

Location: United States
Date: November 5, 2020

The Coalition For Women In Journalism monitors the US Elections and electoral campaigns. The electoral scene is mostly dominated by misinformation and fear of violence and the consequences of the election results. Many journalists expressed their concern about the situation in the street following the results of the elections. The Coalition For Women In Journalism is concerned about the level of disinformation circulated on Social media platforms and even by the Current president himself and we call upon all parties to adhere to the rule of law and democratic principles.

Ahead of the US election, The Coalition For Women In Journalism started a special coverage to document threats against women journalists and to monitor the main trends and features of the electoral scene. Our team has noted the following issues:

Disinformation: Since the beginning of the campaigns, there is a clear problem with the type of information circulated and promoted on social media platforms regarding the electoral process. This has urged many media outlets to designate teams to work on verifying news circulated on social media platforms and limit disinformation. Social media platforms also have developed new policies and alerts to highlight questionable content and limit its visibility.

Facebook and Twitter provided new policies ahead of the US election curb online election interference and misinformation, these policies though were enough to combat the level of disinformation by public figures like President Trump and his supporters. The platforms created extra alerts in the past two days to highlight misleading content and guide user to verified information or provide facts that combat this misinformation.

Media outlets also exerted substantial efforts to track and discredit misleading content. Journalist Jane Lytvynenko of Buzzfeed focused mainly on disinformation and created exceptional coverage and thread on Twitter where she highlighted misleading content and provided verified information and credible resources on each incident. Many other outlets created similar coverages and units to deal with disinformation.

CFWIJ has examined thoroughly the type of misinformation circulated on social media platforms. it varied from false information about polling stations and the voting process to fake stories and statements by public figures about the election results. Disinformation is an imminent threat to journalism and democratic principles in general. It questions the core values of press freedom and discredits the work of journalists around the world. It also undermines the value of truth and could lead to drastic consequences.

 Journalists’ safety concerns: Since Summer 2020, Journalists in the US are encountering an unprecedented level of threats. CFWIJ has monitored the US protests more than 430 press freedom violations. This unprecedented level of violations urged most media outlets to increase its safety policies and precautions for the journalists. Press freedom organizations designated hotline and teams to support journalists in the field and receive their reports.

Reuters editor-in-chief announced that Reporters for Reuters covering the elections in the US will have protective gear. This protective gear included flak vests, helmets, gas masks, as well as COVID-19 personal protective equipment including N95 masks.

Many organizations have launched support lines for journalists covering the elections. CFWIJ is receiving reports from women journalists subjected to violations through our Safety@womeninjournalism.org email. We respond instantly to the reports and provide safety guidance and other resources.

We also receive reports through our journalist’s safety application JSafe. It is now available in beta versions on both Android and iOS and can be downloaded directly from iTunes or Android stores. The app allows journalists to communicate and document threats or risks as they encounter and possibly will help them access safety resources and logistics available.

Over the past two days, CFWIJ documented two cases of attacks on women journalists covering elections in the US. On November 1, 2020, eleven people were arrested in Manhattan during the anti-Trump protests. Among the apprehended was Chae Kihn, a photographer who had recently been covering Black Lives Matter protests.

On November 4, 2020, Julia Wall, a photojournalist at News & Observer, was assaulted by the police while covering a march to the poll held in Graham, North Carolina.

According to the US Press freedom tracker, managing editor, Kristin MucCudden “ There are 2 journalists assaulted and nine were impacted by tear gas. The current concern on journalists’ safety is a logical outcome due to the growing number of attacks on journalists since the protests in the summer. Most of the violations against journalists were conducted by law enforcement agents.”

CPJ Coordinator for MENA and North Africa program, Sherif Mansour commented on journalists' safety to Alaraby Elgadid “ This is one of the worst time for journalists around the world even inside the United States. President Trump's approach is mainly targeting journalists and doesn’t accept criticism.”

CFWIJ Launched a designated webpage to cover US elections, document threats against women journalists, and provide safety guidelines and tips to the journalists in the field.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is deeply concerned about the situation of press freedom in the US and the threatening environment that women journalists are operating in. We applaud social media platforms' new policies and urges them to extend these policies to create a safe environment for women journalists on their platforms where they suffer from online trolling and other threats. CFWIJ calls upon US law enforcement agents to refrain from targeting and intimidating journalists in the field.

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.