Pandemic of


Intimidation of journalists is increasing, especially online. Neil Merrick reports


L


ike many journalists, Anna Riley is used to being criticised on Facebook and other social media. Her writing has been compared with that of a 13-year-old, while one person called her a


‘real life Miss Hitler’. She has also been urged her to ‘go die’. But should any reporter be required to put up with this type of trolling or abuse? Riley, who works for Hull Live, enjoys writing opinion pieces that both entertain and inform. They also lead to having a relatively high local profile. She once lived off a food bank parcel for a week, and then did the same with petrol station food. She also wrote about her boyfriend moving in with her during lockdown, as well as people’s reactions when she wore a face mask on a bus. While Riley accepts it is legitimate for people to have opinions about what she writes, too often it degenerates into personal attacks. Even on a day off, she can find herself deleting comments on Facebook after one of her pieces goes live. “I don’t think the news desk has the capacity,” she says.


There seems little doubt that abuse and harassment of


journalists is increasing, especially online. An NUJ survey last year found that 51 per cent of journalists had experienced online abuse during the previous 12 months. Of these, one in five said it was a regular experience – sometimes weekly or even daily. When Riley wrote about being trolled, it led to a hate


group being created on Facebook. “On Twitter you can block people. On Facebook, you must read it before you delete it,” she says.


Attacks on the streets


FREELANCE video journalist Jason Parkinson is used to facing harassment and abuse when he is out filming. In 2011, he was


detained by secret police in Cairo while covering the Arab Spring. In


12 | theJournalist


central London he once had both his head and camera smashed with a broomstick during an anarchists’ demonstration.. Last summer, while


covering the far-right protest in Trafalgar Square against Black


Lives Matter, someone threw a large rock at his knee. “It was clearly a targeted attack,” he says. Things have got worse


over the past few years, partly due to ‘fake news’ and Covid-19. Some people claim, as a journalist, he is


51%


of journalists had faced abuse in the previous 12 months


A study in 2020 by Samantha Harman, former editor of the


Oxford Mail, found cases of journalists being diagnosed with anxiety or depression after receiving abuse. Some had been forced to move home, or even left the profession. Harman, now a freelance and course leader in journalism at


Oxford Brookes University, surveyed more than 400 journalists, mostly through regional publishers. Four out of five said online abuse had increased since they had started in journalism. Eighty-nine per cent had received abuse on Facebook and 67 per cent on Twitter. For Harman, the problem became starker when she realised


it was affecting her view of the world. Driving home at night after deleting abusive comments left by readers, she began to wonder if the people leaving such messages might attack her or her house. “You wonder if the person who left that abusive message is standing behind you in the coffee shop,” she says. Female journalists seem to bear the brunt of attacks.


Last year, right-wing activist James Goddard was given a restraining order by magistrates after shouting abuse at Lizzie Dearden, The Independent’s home affairs and security correspondent. Amy Fenton was forced to leave Barrow-in-Furness after


facing a torrent of abuse, including a threat of rape, for court stories she wrote as chief reporter of the Mail, the town’s daily paper. According to a study by the International Centre for


Journalists, female journalists face daily online abuse, which can invade their private lives and lead to psychological problems as well as physical violence. It is not only female reporters who suffer harassment. Liam Thorp, political editor at the Liverpool Echo, used Twitter to publicise the contents of an email he received warning him his ‘judgment will be due very soon’.


responsible for the lockdown and pandemic. Anti-lockdown


protests by conspiracy theorists are especially dangerous. “There is constant


harassment by everyone,” he says. “I have been verbally abused by elderly women and people try to rip the mask off your face.”


Parkinson, who works


mainly for Associated Press and Getty Images, believes it is vitally important to tell the story – whether it is a far-right protest, or people breaking lockdown rules by not socially distancing in a park. The element of risk is growing. Natasha


Hirst, chair of the NUJ’s photographers’ council, says hostility from the public is especially worrying. “Sometimes it’s a


problem when you take pictures of people shopping or in the park,” she says. “They assume the


photographer is trying to make them look bad.”


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