Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the harassment, defamation and threats to which three Lebanese women journalists were subjected on social media last week and calls on the authorities to provide them with protection.
Double jeopardy Daily News (via HT Media Ltd.)
In the contemporary world of journalism, female reporters face a double jeopardy: they are increasingly targeted both as journalists and as women – particularly in repressive regimes and misogynistic societies.
As the United Nations intensifies its campaign for women’s rights worldwide – even as it annually commemorates World Press Freedom Day on May 3 – one of the questions lingering in the minds of women activists is: Is press freedom incompatible with gender empowerment?
Marianna Belalba Barreto, Civic Space Cluster Lead at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance based in Johannesburg, told
IPS the
CIVICUS Monitor has documented many cases of women journalists facing online harassment and the gendered nature of it.
Lebanon is experiencing an economic crisis partly fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic and aggravated by the catastrophic explosion that tore through Beirut last August.
Randa Yassir, executive director of youth and women’s rights NGO the Smart Center, explains here how deteriorating conditions may have grim consequences for gender equality and freedom of speech.
IWPR: What progress has there been in Lebanon in recent years for women’s rights in general and their freedom of expression in particular?
Randa Yassir: Although Lebanon used to be considered one of the freest countries in the Arab world, there has still been little progress in most areas of gender equality.