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The insidious problem of online violence against women journalists is increasingly spilling offline, with potentially deadly consequences, a new global survey suggests. Twenty percent of women journalists and media workers who participated in the survey – run by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – reported being targeted with offline abuse and attacks that they believe were connected with online violence they had experienced.

A new advisory report published today by the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom chaired by Lord Neuberger and Amal Clooney finds that journalists face unprecedented risks to their safety and makes a number  of key recommendations to States, including the introduction of an emergency visa for journalists at risk. 

The Centre for Freedom of the Media welcomes and endorses the Report being published today the independent High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom on Providing Safe Refuge to Journalists at Risk. The Centre fully supports the Panel’s key message to State authorities that they must take proactive and effective actions to implement the Recommendations set out in the Report to be in compliance with their legal and political obligations.

On 10 November the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media published the third edition of its Safety of Journalists Guidebook, authored by William Horsley, Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) co-founder and International Director.