As the world observes International Women\u2019s Day, Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) calls attention to the attacks, harassment and abuse that women journalists in Pakistan face and urges the need for tackling such attacks on women in the media. The safety \u2014 both physical and mental \u2014 of women journalists must be ensured.<\/p>\n

While the media as a whole in Pakistan faces numerous challenges including physical attacks, online harassment and threats of attack within a restrictive media landscape, the attacks on women journalists additionally take on a gendered nature focussed on character assassination and personal attacks on them.<\/p>\n

During a series of political rallies in May 2022, journalists on the ground were subjected to acts of violence. In one such\u00a0instance<\/a>, woman journalist\u00a0Samaa TV\u00a0reporter ZamZam Saeed was injured after being attacked by Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) supporters in Karachi.<\/p>\n

In a tragic accident,\u00a0Channel 5\u00a0reporter Sadaf Naeem\u00a0lost her life<\/a>\u00a0after being run over by a container PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan was travelling in during his political party’s \u201cLong March\u201d in Punjab.<\/p>\n

Naeem\u2019s death was a tragic loss of life that highlights the need for safety training for the media. It should serve as a wake-up call for the media, political parties and authorities organizing such rallies about the necessary arrangements needed to ensure the safety of journalists on the field.<\/p>\n

Along with physical attacks, women journalists have in particular come under attack online. Hateful messages, morphed images and vile messages about women journalists are often shared on social media platforms. Leading women journalists have on repeated occasions become the target of campaigns that are sometimes led or supported by political parties.<\/p>\n

In August 2020, a group of Pakistani women journalists issued a statement highlighting the nature of the abuse they were experiencing. According to the joint statement, women were\u00a0targeted<\/a>\u00a0for their viewpoints, particularly regarding the government\u2019s handling of Covid-19, making it \u201cincredibly difficult\u201d for them to carry out their professional duties.<\/p>\n

The joint statement noted that women journalists were called \u201cpeddlers of \u2018fake news,\u2019 \u2018enemy of the people\u2019 and accused of taking bribes (often termed \u2018paid\u2019 journalists or\u00a0lifafas\u201d).<\/p>\n

Additionally, they said that their social media timelines were \u201cbarraged with gender-based slurs, threats of sexual and physical violence,\u201d and attempts to hack their accounts.<\/p>\n

PPF has observed that political rhetoric by senior political leaders also targets women journalists or makes excuses for the abuse they face. This is a dangerous precedent that can further lead to inciting attacks or abuse against these journalists.<\/p>\n

On October 18, 2022, PTI chairman Khan stated that\u00a0NewsOne\u00a0anchorperson\u00a0Gharidah Farooqi<\/a>\u00a0was opening herself up for attacks by entering male-dominated spaces. Khan referenced Farooqi and said: \u201cGharidah Farooqi enters the crowd and then complains of harassment\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0tweet<\/a>, Farooqi shared that in response to a question regarding the trolling and attacks on journalists, Khan replied: \u201cIf Gharidah Farooqi shoves herself with men, then this will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laws passed for the protection of women in the workplace and for the safety of journalists and media professionals must be implemented in order to ensure that a safe work environment for women in the media can be created. The lack of acknowledgement, seriousness and effort to counter such acts must also be changed with a concerted effort to document and condemn such attacks.<\/p>\n

Both the\u00a0Sindh Protection of Journalists and Other Media Practitioners Act, 2021<\/a>\u00a0and the federal-level\u00a0Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act, 2021<\/a>\u00a0guarantee protection against harassment. The Sindh-level law goes a step further by differentiating between broader harassment and sexual harassment, which defines sexual harassment as defined in the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010. These laws should provide a legal avenue for protection against harassment within the workplace through effective implementation.<\/p>\n

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The post On International Women\u2019s Day, PPF calls attention to attacks on women journalists; the safety of women journalists must be ensured<\/a> first appeared on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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As the world observes International Women\u2019s Day, Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) calls attention to the attacks, harassment and abuse that women journalists in Pakistan face and urges the need for tackling such attacks on women in the media. The safety \u2014 both physical and mental \u2014 of women journalists must be ensured. While the media [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post On International Women\u2019s Day, PPF calls attention to attacks on women journalists; the safety of women journalists must be ensured<\/a> first appeared on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[4,328],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11149,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148\/revisions\/11149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}