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Women journalists in Pakistan work in a hostile environment; only the fittest can survive.
“SOMETIMES I think they just wanted to scare me, but then I think maybe they wanted me dead,” says Bisma , a journalist well known for her progressive views. It was one evening in February 2019 when several shots were fired right outside her house. She has never spoken about the incident to anyone except her immediate family, her boss and the head of the media company she works for all of whom believe it was due to her reporting.
It had been a year since Bisma had done a particular story and started getting threatening calls telling her to “watch out”, the tone in each subsequent call turning more aggressive. “I never thought they would show up at my doorstep,” she says. Fearing further repercussions, she kept quiet, and has since then drastically cut down her social media presence. “The message was pretty clear.”
Separated by borders, united through stories of online abuse
Protest in Dhaka against gender-based online violence. Photo by S.K Enamul Haque
For the first time, South Asian media organisations The Daily Star in Bangladesh, The Week magazine in India, Dawn in Pakistan and Republica in Nepal are coming together to report about the killings, attacks, harassment, and intimidation of journalists in the respective countries. It is the first such collaboration by media outlets in the region.
Bangladesh: Does Digital Security Act actually protect women?
By Zyma Islam
It is impossible in all probability to find a woman who has not been sexually harassed online, but try locating one who has sought legal recourse for it under the Digital Security Act (DSA), and it is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.