By Ruth Nacional

MANILA– Foreign and Filipino women journalists demanded urgent gender-sensitive approaches to press freedom at a forum last November 17 organized by the Austrian Embassy in Manila in partnership with the Embassy of Ukraine in the Philippines, Media Freedom Coalition, and Miriam College’s Women and Gender Institute.

The forum tackled how women journalists, through their perspectives and lived experience, are inevitably central in the larger story of promoting safety in one of the most dangerous countries for media workers. 

Global online violence

In Ukraine, there is a strong tradition of women in newsrooms because men often serve in the army. However, this entails higher risks and increased likelihood of gendered self-censorship among women journalists. 

Nataliya Gumenyuk, CEO of Ukraine-based coalition Public Interest Journalism Lab, cited Ukraine’s Women in Media report which found that 81% of the 180 women media workers surveyed experienced online violence, but only 64% clearly recognized it. The most common forms of online violence identified were defamation and misogynistic and sexist speech. 

Gumenyuk noted that even if violence is acknowledged and condemned, the problem is that the police do not investigate. In the same report, only one out of five women victims turned to law enforcement agencies but no subsequent investigation was conducted. 

Similar to Filipino journalists, the Ukrainian journalist had her share of witnessing women journalists being killed and imprisoned for their work. Gumenyuk called for more robust acts of solidarity to ensure that justice is served for women journalists behind bars, and that they are not forgotten. Sending letters is a simple yet profound act of solidarity for detained journalists, she said. 

Attacks from the newsroom

Jamela Alindogan, founder and executive director of non-profit organization Sinagtala Center for Women and Children in Conflict, Inc., contextualized the struggles of being a Filipino woman conflict correspondent.

Gender-based bias and systems in the workplace happen so frequently, Alindogan said, that they are now normalized. There is the stigma of women not suitable for conflict reporting, the instinct of self-silencing to avoid becoming the story, and occurrences where reporting a case of violence to a superior would be resolved by reassignment instead of actual accountability.

According to Alindogan, company policies and standards can also be repressive and silencing but women journalists are not trained to repel and push back when attacks come from their own newsroom.

Digital safety

Violence against journalists is not limited anymore to the field and newsrooms, as it has expanded to online spaces as well. “Disinformation networks disproportionately attack women who challenge power,” Alindogan said. 

Attacks penetrated through what little boundary is left of journalists. “We were no longer just reporting the news, we became part of the story, often unwillingly,” said Reuters’ Manila bureau chief Karen Lema. She experienced being targeted by an online lynch mob for her report during the Duterte administration. 

“Aside from being immersed in this kind of grief and trauma when talking to the families and victims of the drug war, you also have to deal with your own trauma,” Context News inclusive economic correspondent Mariejo Ramos said as she shared the same sentiments about dealing with online hostility when reporting sensitive stories.

Lema and Ramos recounted grim experiences in covering stories during Duterte’s drug war. Their stories form part of the cases of violence against journalists which increased when Duterte was president. 

As digital threats and physical safety persist, newsroom policies and mechanisms must adapt to help reporters navigate these risks. Lema shared her newsroom’s efforts in ensuring physical safety and well-being by sending security specialists to check in on them, supporting peer support initiatives, and providing cybersecurity training.

Reshaping the field 

Rhea Padilla, Altermidya network director and board secretary, stressed the need to allow diversity in the newsroom and challenge traditional news practices. While traditional newsrooms tend to favor sensationalizing stories, Padilla’s advice is to train young journalists to listen and approach an interview with personal honesty.

“The future of journalism depends on how well we prepare our young journalists today, and how well we collaborate with and empower them,” said Therese San Diego-Torres, president of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC), adding the importance of stronger collaboration between the academe and the industry in shaping future journalists who can leverage technology to deepen transparency, expand access, and amplify voices of underserved communities.

Through strengthening academe-industry partnership, San Diego-Torres envisions learning environments where journalist safety, protection, and other newsroom challenges are integrated. “Industry gains new talent that is agile and forward-looking, the academe gains insights that keep curricula relevant and grounded in practice.” This is part of the Philippine Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists, developed by the AIJC as part of the “Safeguarding Press Freedom in the Philippines” project.

According to Julie Haas of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, big tech players are linked to journalism safety because they influence how information is generated and disseminated. “We really have to get to the core of this because it’s not only about the people who do the harassment, it’s also about the infrastructure of why it’s spread, and why it’s so easy […] to attack women journalists in such a coordinated way.” (RTS, DAA)