Nearly three out of four women journalists face digital abuse globally: How digital violence threatens press freedom in Africa

For Kgomotso Modise, a seasoned South African journalist covering courts and criminal justice, harassment has become a daily reality.

“The insults are very sexual”, she explains. “My male colleagues who express similar views would never face the same slurs. For me, it’s always: ‘Oh, she’s sleeping with the investigations officer.’ Any opinion I share is sexualized”, says Modise.

This pattern intensified during her coverage of the high-profile Senzo Meyiwa trial, where polarized public opinion fueled vicious online attacks. While male journalists were called “stupid,” Modise and her female peers endured body-shaming, appearance-based insults, and degrading insinuations about their sexuality – attacks that had nothing to do with the accuracy of their reporting and everything to do with their gender.

The distinction matters. When criticism focuses on a journalist’s work, it can spark productive debate. When it weaponizes gender, sexuality, and physical appearance to delegitimize reporting, it crosses into harassment and abuse – designed to silence them.

Digital violence often escalates beyond professional criticism into personal violation. After Modise posted content criticizing extrajudicial killings, a troll retrieved childhood photos from her Facebook account and posted them alongside threats involving sexual violence against her and her under-age niece.

“That, for me, just went too far”, she recalls. “It wasn’t just an attack on my views – it was a violation involving children.”

Such incidents illustrate how digital abuse weaponizes personal information to intimidate and silence women journalists. “That post got insane engagement, and a lot of it was negative. I’ve gotten used to the insults and people criticizing my views. But someone took it a step further.”

The impact of sustained digital abuse is profound. Many journalists begin to self-censor, fearing backlash. Modise admits she has reduced commentary on sensitive cases. “Sometimes you think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t tweet this’, even though it’s a view that could inform others.”

Kenyan journalist Cecilia Maundu and host of the Digital Dada podcast, echoes this concern: “When journalists self-censor, society loses. Freedom of information is jeopardized.”

Her interviews on the podcast reveal chilling patterns of women journalists facing coordinated trolling, body-shaming, and even attacks targeting their families. Some deactivate social media accounts or seek therapy to cope.

Maundu confirms that all the journalists she has interviewed on the Digital Dada podcast have faced online abuse, ranging from targeted harassment and cyberbullying to coordinated trolling campaigns and deeply gendered attacks. Their visibility as women in the media makes them especially vulnerable, turning their online presence into a frequent site for hostility and misogyny.

“A television news anchor shared that she began to self-censor due to fear of continued victimization. Another disclosed that she sought therapy following extreme trolling, while another reported that the attacks escalated beyond her, extending to her husband and even more distressingly, to her children”, explains Maundu.

“Several journalists have also made the difficult decision to deactivate their social media accounts entirely in order to safeguard their mental wellbeing.”

Online harassment reflects entrenched gender inequality and harmful social norms. Modise notes, “People think they can get away with insulting a woman. Even compliments like ‘beauty with brains’ reveal bias – the assumption that you can’t be beautiful and smart.”

Despite these challenges, women journalists continue to report courageously. At the African Women in Media Conference (2023) in Kigali, African media organizations, journalists, and media partners adopted a landmark declaration – a commitment to confront the increasing violence against women, including rape, femicide, harmful cultural practices, online and offline threats, harassment, surveillance, intimidation, and smear campaigns in and through the media.

Modise credits her newsroom for providing psychological support and pairing women with male colleagues for high-risk assignments. Yet, she insists more must be done: “We need stronger collaboration with law enforcement and cyber experts to unmask perpetrators. Once people face consequences, the message will be clear.”

UN Women advocates for taking action to end digital violence against all women and girls:

• Hold perpetrators accountable through better laws and enforcement.
• Make tech companies step up by hiring more women to create safer online spaces, removing harmful content quickly, and responding to reports of abuse.
• Support survivors with real resources by funding women’s rights organizations and movements.
• Invest in prevention and culture change through digital literacy and online safety training for women and girls and programmes that challenge toxic online cultures. It’s time to reclaim our digital spaces and demand a future where technology powers equality.

Protecting women journalists is not just about individual safety – it is about safeguarding democracy and ensuring diverse voices shape our collective future.

For Modise, the motivation to persist is clear: “My love for informing and educating outweighs the hate. When someone says, ‘Thank you for sharing this’ – that keeps me going.”