Threats and trolling as main dangers for female journalists in Ukraine – IMI survey

(photo credit: TWC Watch guard technologies) The threats and internet trolling are main dangers the female journalists face in their work in Ukraine. Such are the results of anonymous questioning* held by IMI in all regions of Ukraine. According to this questioning, 47% of female journalists working in Ukraine had faced physical aggression (threats, assaults and so on) due to their professional activity. Only 17% among them appealed to the police. In particular, 73% of interrogated persons faced threats, 10% of interrogated persons were surveyed, 4% of interrogated journalists became victims of assaults and other types of pressure. Trolling and bot-attacks in the Internet were second by quantity menace the journalists faced (51% of interrogated journalists mentioned it). 19% of women journalists said their accounts had been broken, 14% of journalists received mails with threats, 6% became victims of fishing attacks. In total, 42% of respondents have been facing internet menaces. The female journalists were asked to precise where they faced the menaces. It was found out 42% of respondents faced the dangers while covering some conflicts, 32% of respondents faced dangers at protest campaigns, 9% of respondents were under pressure while interviewing persons of power. As the questioning revealed, 41% of women journalists don’t feel themselves being out of danger working in mass media. *The research was made as an anonymous questioned-based survey. Totally, we received 232 responses from female journalists, 84% of them are journalists from the regions of Ukraine and 16% of them are from Kyiv. This research was made with support of USAID “Media program in Ukraine”, fulfilled by the international organization Internews. The content of research is exclusively under responsibility of the NGO “Institute of Mass Information” and not necessarily reflects the points of view of USAID, US government and Internews.