Pakistan: 75 journalists registered complaints regarding online harassment in 2022
Jul 25, 2023
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 25 : As many as 75 journalists and media practitioners filed complaints to the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) regarding online harassment, threats and hacking attempts, Pakistan-based Dawn reported.
While unveiling its ‘Policy Brief’ on Monday, DRF said that 34 women, 40 men and one trans person lodged complaints using its Cyber Harassment Helpline and other services like email and social media platforms in 2022, Dawn reported.
As per the news report, the helpline received the highest number of complaints. Around 25 per cent, from Pakistan's Punjab, followed by 17 per cent from journalists residing outside Pakistan, particularly in Afghanistan.
Around 51 or 61 per cent complaints were of cyber harassment. Of those, 15 complaints were online threats and 13 were of hacking attempts, either the journalist’s social media accounts or mass reporting of their accounts which affects their work and results in breach of their personal information.
Around 18 per cent of the cyber-harassment complaints that were received were about organised and targeted campaigns against journalists on different online platforms instigating hatred, the report said.
The Policy Brief said, "These campaigns often employed tactics of disinformation to harass their targets," Dawn reported. Some campaigns were able to succeed as social media platforms suspended the accounts of journalists.
Women journalists were particularly susceptible to online harassment due to their gender, as per the Dawn report. Women journalists were often being subjected to misogynistic and sexually explicit remarks. The policy brief included recommendations for policymakers, law enforcement agencies and social media companies to handle cases related to journalists.
Nighat Dad, the DRF executive director, said fewer complaints were received from female journalists than male journalists, Dawn reported. Dad stressed that female journalists in Pakistan are less than five per cent of the total journalists as per the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ).
