Under attack: Debate to focus on challenges faced by women journalists

A webinar to be held on Thursday hosted by NGO Mediating Women | Balancing the Media will discuss the challenges faced by women journalists on the job with panellists that include Corinne Vella, the sister of assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Entitled: ‘UNDER ATTACK: Women journalists and the gender-based risks that come with the job’, the webinar marks the one year anniversary of the NGO and is being organised in collaboration with women’s rights organisation GAMAG Europe.

Journalists the world over are facing ever-increasing threats, intimidation and unyielding pressures from those in whose interest it is that those working at uncovering uncomfortable truths are silenced. But the attacks launched on women journalists are particular: the harassment, both online and offline, is gender-based and often includes threats of violence.

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In the aftermath of the assassination of Caruana Galiza, who was the target of three decades of consistent threats and a campaign of dehumanisation, the discussion will examine the risks faced by women who are resolute in holding power to account, as well as why it is becoming increasingly more difficult for women to pursue a career in journalism.

Those who persist face daily hostilities, oftentimes by those who are morally and legally bound to protect citizens’ right to be informed. In some cases, these attacks result in women giving up their career entirely; in others, the threat is carried through.

The panel will feature Caroline Muscat, investigative journalist and founder of The Shift News; Prof Iris Luarasi, Vice-President of GREVIO and academic at the Department of Journalism and Communication, Tirana University; Kristina Chetcuti, opinion columnist at The Times of Malta and author of Amazing Maltese Women; and Corinne Vella from the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation.

The panel will be joined by Prof Brenda Murphy, founder of Mediating Women and academic at the Department of Gender and Sexualities within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta, as well as Prof Teresa Carreras Riera, President of GAMAG Europe.

The webinar will be held on Thursday, 21 January at 7pm. For more information visit Mediating Women.