Yesterday was World Press Freedom Day, and an increasingly disturbing trend is of great concern to me: The growing number of women journalists around the world who are thinking of leaving journalism or giving it up altogether because of the online harassment and violence they are subjected to, which is increasingly spilling over into the real world. Fewer women reporters means less diversity of information, in addition to undermining freedom of the press.

The statistics are terrifying. According to an extensive worldwide UNESCO survey, three quarters of women journalists endured either constant abuse or extreme threats at some point or even large-scale online attacks that often had a sexual connotation. That’s four times the rate at which their male colleagues experience such things. Twenty per cent of the female journalists surveyed believe that the violence generated online is linked to the assaults, insults and harassment that spill over into their real lives.

The consequences can be deadly. Consider the 2017 murder of the courageous Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who wrote a blog about the relationship between organized crime and political corruption. At a conference I attended recently, I heard the heartbreaking testimony of her sister. Corinne Vella recounted how, before she was murdered in a bomb attack, her sister Daphne, an investigative journalist, was vilified by the government and faced 47 lawsuits, and how she and her family were constantly intimidated by threats online and offline.

I also heard Zaina Erhaim speak. She is a Syrian journalist, one of the few women journalists working in Syria during the war. She said that journalism is not considered a woman’s profession in her conservative province, because it brings her into contact with men. She has chosen to speak out publicly rather than conform to the traditional role expected of women. Her family’s reputation was tarnished, and her life was in danger. This social context and the constant online harassment finally forced her to flee to Great Britain. She was not writing about the war, but rather about the reality facing women. Zaina Erhaim was kidnapped by pro-Assad militiamen and was threatened with death. The sisterhood of feminist journalists is what kept her going.

This online violence is not just the work of isolated madmen. It often involves a coordinated and organized network, and state agencies are sometimes even involved. These virtual threats extend to the families and sources of these women journalists. This hate is intimate and often highly sexualized. It’s meant to humiliate, discredit, instill fear and provoke silence.

The voices of these women journalists need to be heard, because they are changing the world, in their own way, by sharing different stories and bringing new perspectives. Media owners, police and authorities must protect them rather than telling them to ignore this online hate.

Thank you.