Argentina’s journalists speak out against online gender-based violence

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Hate speech is rising around the world, including sexist and sexualized hate speech often targeted at women – and women journalists in particular – driving them from precisely the spaces where their voices are most needed.

“In Argentina, it is a widespread problem,” Mariana Iglesias told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Ms. Iglesias has reported for the major Argentinian newspaper, Diario Clarín, since 1996, is the country’s first journalist to carry the title of gender editor – a role that has made her extremely familiar with digital violence. 

According to a global 2020 UNESCO survey, nearly three quarters of women journalists had experienced online violence during their career, such as death threats, image-based harassment and threats of sexual violence. One third had been subjected to a physical attack as a result of their online presence, with journalists of colour and LGBTQIA+ journalists facing even greater risks.

And this abuse is far from limited to public figures: An alarming 85 per cent of women have witnessed online violence, with 40 per cent having experienced it themselves. The ramifications of this abuse can be devastating, frequently leading to painful self-censorship and spiralling from the digital into real life to cause serious physical and mental health issues.

“When violence and hate are delivered digitally, they are too often dismissed,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem. “[Yet it] can cost women their careers, their health and even their lives.”

The muzzling effect of online violence

Digital abusers target journalists who are outspoken about gender issues. Ms.Iglesias, for instance, has recently covered the movement to legalize abortion in Argentina (in December 2020, the government passed legislation permitting access to abortion up to 14 weeks). In response she received emails, messages and calls telling her to watch her back and to “cut it with what you write”, she said.

More widely, according to research by Amnesty International, one in three women across Argentina have been subjected to violence on social media against the backdrop of the abortion debate. For many, online gender-based violence acts as a muzzle. Nearly half of the women surveyed by reported using social networks less or leaving them altogether. And almost one third of the female journalists who participated in the UNESCO study reported self-censoring on social media.

Ms. Iglesias, for her part, stopped engaging on social media. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. But refused offers from the newspaper to put a police officer on security watch for her or to be shifted onto other writing assignments.

“I’m not going to change my themes, and I’m going to continue working,” she said.

Renewed call to end violence

In March 2023, UNFPA joined dozens of organizations in Argentina who signed a commitment to collaborate towards the eradication of gender-based violence and discrimination in digital spaces.

UNFPA  works to combat online gender-based violence by providing survivors with response services as and when needed, and by raising awareness through new safety and ethical guidelines and its flagship bodyright campaign. 

With the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, of Rutgers University, UNFPA is also working to help reframe how digital violence is understood by media organizations – reporters are urged to recognize the far-reaching economic, psychological and real-world impacts of digital violence, and they are asked to highlight the responsibility of users, tech companies and regulators to create online spaces safe from violence.  

The hope is to empower survivors and advocate for increased accountability and regulation, because, as UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Kanem has urged, “This is a moment to renew the urgent call for society-wide activism to prevent violence, wherever it happens, until we reach the end.”

Journalists like Ms. Iglesias are heeding that call and breaking their silence on online violence. She has filed a complaint with a unit of Argentina’s Public Prosecutor's Office and is part of a new, UNFPA-created Gender Editors Network, which seeks to unite journalists towards the goal of strengthening media coverage on issues of gender equality.

But she says more legal restraints must be put in place to discourage offenders from committing online violence. “The digital world today is self-censorship and impunity,” she continued. “It is a discussion that must be settled”.