Women journalists reporting on Iran harassed online

Article 19 published a briefing in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) looking into the toxic and often violent space women journalists reporting on Iran inhabit.

The briefing is a culmination of a number of interviews with women journalists from the Iranian diaspora who cover Iran for various media outlets and who face increased and concerning levels of online harassment and abuse as a result of their work. The interview subjects did not include anyone identifying as trans or non-binary.

The testimonies in this briefing indicate that the attacks faced online often include but are not limited to direct death threats against them and their families and the dissemination of their personal information (doxing). 

Women journalists based in Iran are also frequently subject to other severe forms of discrimination, harassment and torture, sexual assault, and lack of due process. 

While the severity of the conditions experienced by women journalists inside Iran cannot be compared to the experiences we document of the Iranian women in the diaspora, the report says the risks they face are nonetheless serious and must be prevented.