Every day, women journalists around the world open their social media accounts knowing they may face a barrage of sexually explicit threats, body-shaming comments, and coordinated harassment campaigns designed to silence their reporting. According to UNESCO’s landmark global study, 73 per cent of women journalists (three out of four) have experienced online violence, with one in four receiving threats of physical harm including death threats. For women journalists in East and Southern Africa, these attacks are not just statistics – they are a daily reality that shapes how, when, and whether they can do their jobs.
Digital violence, also called “technology-facilitated violence against women” is a form of abuse that weaponizes digital platforms to intimidate, discredit, and ultimately silence women journalists through threats that often escalate from screens into real life. As online abuse against journalists intensifies globally, understanding how women reporters navigate these hostile digital environments and what can be done to protect them has become critical to defending press freedom itself….
Read more on https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2025/12/how-digital-violence-threatens-press-freedom-in-africa
