Safeguarding Women’s Voices: Enhancing Gender-Responsive Safety Strategies
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Safeguarding Women’s Voices: Enhancing Gender-Responsive Safety Strategies
Women journalists around the world face offline and online attacks, putting their safety at risk. The IWMF found that one-third of women journalists have considered leaving the profession due to online attacks and threats. The Chilling: A global study of online violence against women journalists, conducted by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and supported by UNESCO, found that nearly 73% of women journalists have experienced online violence. From online harassment, abuse, and trolling to physical assault, these attacks target women for their journalistic work and gender, highlighting the urgent need for tailored approaches to ensuring the safety and well-being of women journalists.
The Safeguarding Women’s Voices: Enhancing Gender-Responsive Safety Strategies action, led by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and UNESCO, aims to support media outlets in different regions, with a focus on the Global South, to strengthen safety policies to address threats based on gender. All types of media outlets and newsrooms are eligible, including but not limited to: print, TV, radio, internet, magazine, nonprofit, and commercial.
Participating newsrooms will benefit from the following:
- One-to-one consultations with safety experts to identify an action plan for each newsroom.
- The guidance of safety experts to develop, strengthen and monitor safety protocols to address threats based on gender.
- Access to existing resources such as adaptable policy templates and real-life newsroom policy examples.
- Customized safety trainings for newsroom leaders and journalists.
Newsrooms from the following countries (regardless of their size or type of medium) can apply for this opportunity:
- Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, El Salvador, Ecuador, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Guyana
- Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia
- Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Timor-Leste
- Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Namibia
- Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco
Please note that this opportunity is only for organizations/newsrooms. It is not for individual journalists. If you are an individual journalist seeking safety resources, please see our opportunities listed here.
A total of 22 newsrooms will be selected by early February 2025. If you are a newsroom committed to promoting the safety of women journalists and developing gender-responsive safety policies, please complete this form. We highly encourage newsrooms that are based in a high risk environment and/or do not have access to safety resources to apply for this opportunity.
The IWMF is accepting applications in English, Spanish, French and Arabic. Applicants are encouraged to apply by January 10, 2025. Please reach out to programs@iwmf.org if you have any questions or accessibility needs.
This initiative is supported through the project “Protecting journalists to protect democracy: tackling emergency threats to media freedom” funded by the United States of America.
