EuTambém in Brazil, #WoYeShi in China, #UnVioladorEnTuCamino in Chile #Masaktach in Morocco, via الناجيات_نصدق# in Egypt … For seven years, social networks and the press have been profoundly transformed by the publication, on 5 October 2017 in the New York Times, of the first investigation into the Harvey Weinstein affair.
The #MeToo movement was launched in 2006 by the African-American activist Tarana Burke, and since then it has swept the world. In a report published on 21 October 2024, entitled « Journalism in the #MeToo era », Reporters Without Borders (RWB) looks at its impact on the media world : journalistic practices called into question, new media created, but also the dangers faced by journalists covering women’s rights.
A total of 112 countries were surveyed, and over 80% of the 113 journalists questioned noted an increase in coverage of gender issues, sexual violence and women’s rights.
The general press has also embraced this movement, creating new models of journalism and even inventing new professions such as gender editor, whose job is to ensure that the people chosen as sources are mixed, and to avoid sexist clichés in the choice of words and illustrations.
Charters and codes of ethics have also proliferated to improve media coverage of sexist and sexual violence. These developments have been accompanied by an increase in training for journalists, as shown by the results of the RWB survey: 73% of the journalists questioned felt that they benefited from more training on these subjects.
Despite this progress, more than a quarter of journalists consider that covering these subjects involves risks. Indeed, 60% of them have witnessed cyber-harassment of colleagues specialising in these areas. In authoritarian regimes such as Iran and Russia, journalists are driven to self-censorship or exile.
The most serious cases recorded by RWB, such as the imprisonment of journalists in Afghanistan and the repression of those working in Iran and Russia, bear witness to the violence suffered by those covering women’s rights.
« This is a widespread scourge in every corner of the world« , deplores Anne Bocandé, Editorial Director of RWB.
An alarming finding emerges from the survey: 93% of journalists polled are unaware of any convictions for attacks on those investigating gender-based violence.
« Even if progress has been made, the situation remains worrying« , says Anne Bocandé.
At the end of its report, Reporter Without Borders makes sixteen recommendations to governments, platforms, newsrooms and police and judicial authorities, in order to provide the best possible support and guarantee the protection of journalists working on these issues.
MDI is committed to supporting women’s rights and combating GBV through our various programmes.
Read the report on RWB
