Today is World News Day, an ambitious, worldwide initiative intended to draw public attention to the role that journalists play in providing trustworthy news and information that serves citizens and democracy.
World News Day aims to bring more than 500 news organizations together to drive home the message that credible journalism matters if people are to make informed decisions.
As more reports are received about journalists being killed, injured, or threatened from around the world and in Canada, this is a fitting time to remind readers why journalism is important to them.
In August, journalism organizations and media groups around the country sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to draw attention to the increasing and alarming online hate and harassment targeting journalists and journalism as a profession.
According to the letter, which was sent by dozens of organizations late last month, this is a global problem which threatens not only the safety and well-being of journalists, but the proper functioning of democracy itself. Many countries are now working on plans to fight back and the letter calls on Canadian police and policymakers to do the same.
The letter asserts that, for the most part, these attacks are aimed at racialized and female journalists who are experiencing an increasing number of targeted, vile threats of violence. The letter states that in a 2021 Ipsos survey of journalists, 72 per cent of respondents said they had experienced some form of online harassment. At the time, the Canadian Association of Journalists co-signed a statement with many Canadian media organizations, affirming that “there can be no tolerance for hate and harassment of journalists or for incitement of attacks on journalists for doing their jobs.”
Despite this, the correspondence said that the volume and nature of the rhetoric in the recent string of attacks has caused many journalists, as well as their respective organizations, to fear for their safety.
The letter asks police forces to take several immediate steps to address the current incidents and to work with the organizations to combat abuse of journalists and all victims of online hate and harassment.
First, many of the threatening emails use similar language; the language commonly used by domestic extremist groups, but because police require individual complaints for each incident and because each incident appears to be treated discretely, the media groups are concerned that the connections among cases and the connections to extremist groups will be missed and this approach could fail to meet the threat.
Journalists who have stepped up to publicly support the complainants have themselves been targeted by abusive emails, suggesting the abuse cannot be treated simply as separate incidents, but instead they warrant a comprehensive and cooperative approach across forces, regardless of geography, the letter states.
Second, the groups are asking that police forces review and improve their respective processes for making complaints of hate speech and harassment. On several occasions, journalists from those organizations experienced difficulty reporting incidents of harassment to police, waiting hours on the phone and in some cases being treated insensitively or dismissively by officers. This not only discourages victims from complaining but adds to the already-considerable trauma they’re experiencing, the letter asserts.
Third, the organizations believe that greater transparency and dialogue are essential while working towards a shared goal of keeping journalists, and all targets of hate, safe.
In particular, the media groups ask that: a process be established in which media organizations can provide police with summaries of multiple incidents and patterns of abuse that might not be apparent when police rely solely on the reports of individual complainants; that police provide regular updates to complainants on the progress of investigations and actions taken; and to both help police and reduce the burden on complainants, media organizations be given a formal role in filing complaints on behalf of or with journalists who have become targets of hate and harassment.
Beyond law enforcement, social media platforms, which are a major channel for the dissemination of hate and harassment, bear significant responsibility for fighting this scourge, the letter said, noting there is much room for improvement, in terms of both urgency and effectiveness, in how these companies respond to complaints of abuse on their platforms.
On this and other issues, the letter said that policymakers have a part to play. Hate and threats hurled at journalists have a chilling effect that is bad for democracy, and that is among the reasons cited in a recent position paper, prepared for the Council of Europe, that calls on all member nations to pull together relevant government ministries, law enforcement agencies, social media companies, and civil society, including journalists, to develop national plans to protect journalists and thus democracy. Several countries are well advanced in this effort and the groups call on the federal government to do the same for Canada.
While this is global in scale, the fact remains that even local journalists face harassment and threats, just for doing their jobs.
Even though this is a rural area with a small population, and few incidents of violence compared to other jurisdictions, past and present employees of The Reporter have experienced targeted harassment, at home and at work, as well as intimidation, just for doing their jobs.
This is a tough job that not everyone can do; it demands long and odd hours, hard work, perseverance, and careful attention to detail. This profession can strain on relationships and friendships, it can isolate journalists from their community, it can be mentally exhausting, and it can try every ounce of human patience.
This job requires the dissemination of truth, which at times, can be difficult to digest for the public, which can lead to conflict and divisions from those with opposing viewpoints, and which can inadvertently hurt some people.
These are aspects of the job that all journalists understand and accept. They know that by writing a certain article or editorial, or event printing a certain photo, some people will not agree, and in some cases, what is published can cause some people to be upset and angry.
But what is not acceptable is when those strong feelings devolve into threats, intimidation, harassment, or even to acts of violence. It is ok to disagree, and even strenuously, but it is not ok to violate the law by targeting people who are only doing their job.