Guide For Journalists Dealing With Online Abuse Launched newsmediauk.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsmediauk.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Journalists are among the unsung heroes of the pandemic. Reporters, producers, subeditors, camera operators and many others continue to lift the national mood with stories of joy and hope and fearlessly bring us reliable, fact-based reporting at a time when the rise in false and misleading information is threatening public health. But there are too many reports of decent hard-working people who put the public interest at the heart of what they do falling victim to violence or having their safety threatened - whether that is being punched in the street, threatened with knives or subject to rape and death threats.
The Government has published its action plan to better protect journalists from threats of violence and intimidation, which includes every UK police force being given access to a designated journalist safety liaison officer.
Abuse aimed at UK journalists going about their work has included them being punched, threatened with knives, forcibly detained and subjected to rape and death threats, the Government said.
In the past year two men have been jailed for threatening regional journalist Amy Fenton on Facebook while two female journalists in Belfast, Patricia Devlin and Allison Morris, have been the subject of threats both online and in graffiti.
COWARDLY attacks and abuse directed at reporters cannot continue, the Prime Minister has said. The government has published the UK’s first national action plan to protect journalists from abuse and harassment. It follows reports to the government from journalists who have suffered abuse and attacks while going about their work, including being punched, threatened with knives, forcibly detained and subjected to rape and death threats. A survey of members of the National Union of Journalists in November also found more than half of respondents had experienced online abuse while nearly a quarter had been physically assaulted or attacked. The plan will increase awareness of the safety challenges faced by journalists operating in the UK and introduce measures to tackle them in a joint effort by law enforcement, broadcasters, publishers, industry bodies, unions and the government.