Trolled

12 results arranged by date

Artwork: Jack Forbes

Psychological safety: Online harassment and how to protect your mental health

Journalists are frequently at risk of being harassed online in an attempt by hostile actors to intimidate or force them into silence. The harassment, most commonly directed at female journalists, often includes threats of violence against the journalist and their family and friends.

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Election officials open a seal on a voting machine at a counting centre in Srinagar in May 2019. CPJ met with journalists across India to discuss the safety challenges of covering India's elections. (AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)

Results of India’s election climate for journalist safety are in

Journalists across India are at risk of physical and digital attack in retaliation for their reporting. And during election campaigns, these dangers can increase. As the country went to the polls in recent weeks, CPJ’s India correspondent Kunal Majumder traveled to Guwahati, Imphal, Agartala, Raipur, Bijapur, and Hyderabad to present CPJ’s election safety kit to…

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Voters queue to cast their vote outside a polling station during the final phase of general election in Chandigarh, India on May 19, 2019. Journalists report online harassment and disinformation during the campaign. (REUTERS/Ajay Verma)

Journalists fighting fake news during Indian election face threats, abuse

The six-week-long voting period in India’s national and provincial elections concluded this week, with results expected on Thursday, according to news reports. For journalists, the campaign has brought a familiar deluge of online abuse.

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A man waves a Guatemalan national flag during a protest in Guatemala City. The country is due to hold presidential and congressional elections in June. (AP/Moises Castillo, File)

Guatemala elections 2019: Journalist safety kit

Guatemala is scheduled to hold presidential and congressional elections on June 16. The Knight Centre for Journalism in the Americas reported increased violence against the press during the country’s 2015 elections. Journalists have told CPJ they are being attacked and harassed, especially online, over their coverage of corruption, or reports on President Jimmy Morales and…

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Women rest on a ship run by the Maltese non-governmental group Moas and the Italian Red Cross after a rescue operation in the Mediterranean in November 2016. In Italy, journalists say they are regularly harassed and threatened online over their coverage of migration issues. (AFP/Andreas Solaro)

Italy’s migrant beat beset with smear campaigns, harassment

When Annalisa Camilli spent eight days on an Open Arms ship that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean, she knew her reporting for the Italian news magazine Internazionale may attract trolls. Camilli has covered the migrant beat for years and this was her second trip with the non-profit rescue operation. But, the reporter said, she was…

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Art:Jack Forbes

Covering elections: Journalist safety kit

During elections, journalists frequently cover rallies, campaign events, and protests, which can increase their risk of being attacked, harassed, and detained. CPJ’s Emergencies Response Team (ERT) has compiled a Safety Kit with information for editors, reporters, and photojournalists on how to prepare for elections and how to mitigate digital, physical and psychological risk.

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A worker dries material for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress Party election campaigns on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, in March. India is due to hold elections from April 11 to May 19. (AFP/Sam Panthaky)

India elections 2019: Journalist safety kit

India is scheduled to hold national and provincial elections from April 11 to May 19, 2019. As the country celebrates over 70 years of democracy, journalists are under pressure from attacks, harassment, cyber bullying, and government restrictions. At least five journalists were killed in relation to their work in India in 2018, including four who…

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Art:Jack Forbes

South Africa elections 2019: Journalist safety kit

South Africa, one of the media freedom beacons in sub-Saharan Africa, will hold national and provincial elections on May 8. As the country celebrates 25 years of democracy, the press in South Africa faces old and new challenges, including physical harassment and cyber bullying. The press freedom environment, including the safety of journalists, will be…

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A woman uses her cell phone in New York in 2014. A HuffPost reporter and several of his colleagues are receiving threatening and harassing messages via phone and online. (AFP/Jewel Samad)

HuffPost journalist and colleagues receive online threats

At least 11 journalists at HuffPost, their families and others were harassed and threatened online in late May and early June 2018, Lydia Polgreen, editor in chief at HuffPost, told CPJ. The harassment came after the outlet published a piece written by reporter Luke O’Brien that identified the person behind a Twitter account that shares…

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People attend the YouTube Fanfest in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October 2016. Google released its first YouTube-specific transparency report in May. (Reuters/Beawiharta)

Greater transparency welcome but social media sites should allow independent audits of content takedowns

In recent days, some of the world’s largest tech companies released new transparency reports, opened up their content moderation guidelines, and adopted approaches to fighting pernicious content as they tried to head off government regulation amid concerns about “fake news,” harassment, terrorism and other ills proliferating on their platforms.

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