Media Freedom Coalition statement: International Women’s Day 2023

March 8, 2023 – Ottawa, Ontario – Global Affairs Canada

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day 2023, the undersigned members of the Media Freedom Coalition call attention to the safety of women journalists and media workers. Women journalists are integral to the pursuit of justice and truth. Via their work as journalists and media workers, they bring attention and a diversity of views on issues that need to be raised. However, while pursuing their work, they continue to face disproportionate violence, threats and harassment.

We are deeply alarmed by the significant worldwide escalation in the scale and intensity of deliberate attacks on women journalists and media workers, both online and offline. 73% of women journalists reported they had experienced online violence during their work in a December 2022 International Center for Journalists report[1]. This International Women’s Day we also honour and recall the women journalists who have been killed in the line of duty while reporting on wars, especially those who lost their lives in 2022. 

The Media Freedom Coalition recognizes the powerful role that a diverse and pluralistic media environment can have in providing access to information and debate, and in ensuring the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression for all.  To enable a positive and flourishing free media, the chilling effect of online and offline harassment of women journalists and media workers must cease.

We call on states, media companies, workplaces, technology platforms and civil society groups, to speak out against technology facilitated gender-based violence, to prevent and address all forms of violence against women journalists and media workers, both online and offline, to defend their ability to practice journalism freely and safely, and join forces to develop viable solutions to this serious threat to media freedom and diversity.

On this International Women’s Day, we call on States to end the repression and targeting of women journalists and to combat egregious sexual and gender-based violence and commit to the protection of women journalists and media workers, both offline and online, and defend their ability to carry out their work in safety.

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belize, Botswana, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Maldives, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, the United States

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