Violence Against Women Journalists Surges, Posing Real Threat to Press Freedom

The global journalism community is facing an emergency regarding the safety of women journalists. According to the latest data from Women Press Freedom, women journalists are the most vulnerable group and accounted for the highest number of murder victims throughout 2024. Globally, 951 incidents of violence were recorded, a sharp increase of 56% compared to the previous year. This phenomenon is not merely a statistic but a real threat to the public’s right to information.

Conditions in Indonesia are no less alarming. During an online public discussion titled ‘The Phenomenon of Silencing Women Journalists in the Digital Era’ held by the Gender, Children, and Marginalised Division (Divisi GAM) of AJI Jakarta on Sunday (14/6/2026), several harrowing testimonies from women media workers were revealed.

Francisca Christy Rosana, a journalist and host of Tempo’s Bocor Alus Politik podcast, recounted a traumatic experience. Last March, her editorial office received a terror threat in the form of a pig’s head without ears. The intimidation did not stop there; she became the target of massive doxing, where her personal data and photos were spread alongside intimidating narratives. ‘Women are often seen as the weak point. These actors assume that if a woman journalist is attacked, the editorial team’s work will be paralysed because energy is drained for protection,’ said Cica, as she is familiarly known. She also frequently receives physical harassment via text messages and social media whenever she covers sensitive political issues.

Violence against women journalists also occurs at the local level with more personal patterns. Fitri Wahyuningsih, a journalist from Kaltimtoday.co in Bontang, East Kalimantan, explained the difficulty of facing attacks in a small city where the perpetrators and victims know each other. Fitri noted several worrying cases in her area, ranging from sexist comments and the seizure of mobile phones by officials to a source sending images of genitalia to her colleague. ‘There is a colleague who suffered deep trauma and decided to take a hiatus from work because she no longer felt safe in the field,’ Fitri revealed.

Responding to the increasingly sophisticated trend of digital attacks, digital rights activist Ellen Kusuma stressed the importance of holistic security that covers physical, psychosocial, and digital aspects. She shared four main steps for preventing digital attacks, including the audit method and consistency. ‘Taking care of our digital body regularly is just as important as taking care of our physical body,’ Ellen emphasised. She reminded journalists not to be reactive but to build a support system before an incident occurs.

At the end of the discussion, the speakers agreed that protecting journalists is not solely the burden of individuals or editorial offices. Cica stressed that when a journalist is attacked, what is actually threatened is the public’s right to obtain honest information. The state, professional organisations such as AJI Jakarta, and civil society must move together to build a public perception that violence against the press is a serious violation. Collective solidarity is key to ensuring that women journalists do not walk alone amidst the increasingly real threat of silencing.