Responding to Internet Abuse
Ana Freitas, a 26-year-old Brazilian journalist who covers pop culture, recalled how she once had trouble convincing an editor at the news outlet YouPix to publish an article she had written about women and minorities being unwelcome on comment boards related to pop cultural videos, movies, comics or gaming.
Combating Digital Harassment
A plurality of online voices is good for democracy, yet one group has come under attack in the most gruesome ways. Threats of rape, physical violence and graphic imagery are showing up in the inboxes and on the social media platforms of female journalists across the globe. Though online harassment of journalists is not new,…
Double Exposure
When it comes to abusive readers’ comments and tweets from Internet trolls, Katherine O’Donnell has heard it all. For years, O’Donnell, who is night editor of the Scottish edition of the U.K.’s The Times, has borne the brunt of personal attacks, including about her gender, from online trolls who take umbrage at articles in her…
LGBT Reporting in Africa
On a recent trip to Kenya, I sat with S., a gay refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the cramped, one-room apartment he shares with three friends, all straight. The four share a bed, and none know S. is gay. The floor is covered in a vibrant yellow vinyl, their belongings clutter every…
Preparing for the Worst
It’s a calm day in a Ugandan village. Women gather on plastic chairs, shaded from the afternoon sun. I’m here with a handful of journalists on a reporting trip sponsored by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). The village women welcome us and begin to tell us about their lives. Then something happens. A man…
Why a Troll Trolls
“Yeah… I went too far,” he said, which by most accounts would be an understatement. Among the Twitter comments this Internet troll posted to or about a female writer and activist were: “Rape her nice ass.” “I will find you.” “The police will do nothing.” The man, who agreed to be interviewed only under a…
The Sadness of May the 25th
To rewrite one’s story, when it is so painful, feels like a kind of suicide. Psychologists would say that is part of a grieving process, helping close nefarious chapters in life. We, the victims of sexual violence, are often told that. But I think it would be more helpful to the goal of moving forward…
Kidnapping for profit or propaganda: How hostage risk for journalists is on the rise
From Central America to North Africa, kidnappings are on the rise and journalists are among the groups at risk of being abducted. Adding to the challenges of dealing with a hostage situation is a lack of solid information about kidnappings worldwide, or a united international response in dealing with the demands of kidnap groups.
Three simple steps to protect shared Twitter accounts from hackers
In my previous blog post I reviewed the results of a poll asking journalists if they used two-factor authentication to protect Twitter accounts from being hacked. But the importance of robust security isn’t limited to personal Twitter accounts.