Now that digital platforms are an integral part of journalism, the issue of online safety has become particularly acute. For Ukrainian women media professionals working in the conditions of the war, information attacks, and constant pressure, online threats are not an abstract concept but an everyday reality that requires resilience and support.
To identify and systematize the key needs of Ukrainian women in media in the context of combating online violence, the NGO Women in Media conducted a survey among Ukrainian female journalists. The analysis thus used 142 questionnaires by female media workers from 127 newsrooms across Ukraine representing different types of media. The document “Online Violence Against Ukrainian Women Media Workers: Impact, Gaps, Requirements”, developed based on the assessment results is intended to serve as a practical tool for newsrooms, civil society organizations, donors, and policymakers in the media safety sector. Authors: Liza Kuzmenko, head of Women in Media NGO, member of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics, and Olha Bilousenko, media analyst, head of the Research Department of the Lviv Media Forum.
Key Findings
Online attacks against women journalists — the danger of losing women’s voices in the media. Unless we strengthen their protection and establish clear response systems while working with the safety culture itself, we risk losing those who inform, analyze, and give space to others to make their voices heard. This is why our response should be not sporadic, but comprehensive, at every level: individual, newsroom, public, and government.
For many women journalists in Ukraine, online violence is not an exceptional situation but rather an everyday occurrence. In the context of war and intense digital interaction, online attacks — trolling, threats, sexualized insults, smear campaigns — have become systemic.
Over 60% of the surveyed women journalists indicated that they had encountered online forms of violence, and another 11% could not clearly identify whether they’d had this experience. Although these cases often go unnoticed in the public space, the consequences for media workers themselves are real and profound.
Most commonly, women journalists experienced trolling in comments, misogynistic statements, targeted disinformation, threats of violence, or harassment of family members. Some respondents reported doxing (publishing personal data without consent), deepfake manipulation (fake videos or audio using AI), and even revenge porn (distributing intimate content without consent).
The impact of these attacks goes beyond words — they affect the emotional state, cause anxiety, fear, and exhaustion. The interviewed journalists indicated: decreased motivation to work, deterioration of mental health, professional anxiety and fear in the workplace, temporary abandonment of publicity and social media, self-censorship (refraining from covering certain topics), and sometimes even abandonment of the profession entirely.
At the same time, 42 respondents (29.6%) said that they believed they had not been affected by the violence. This result is important because it shows the variety of experiences. For some, it is a traumatic experience; for others, a challenge that is soon forgotten. Some journalists already have defense strategies or sufficient resilience, while others brush off these attacks as a way of psychological defense. Others do not identify such cases as violence at all, especially when it comes to sexism or misogyny, which have sadly become the norm in the media environment. Therefore, support must be flexible: it is important that everyone should have a choice and resources.
More than half of the surveyed journalists (60.5%) indicated they did not seek any help after the attack. Such resources as a psychologist, colleagues, or lawyers remain inaccessible or unnoticed. Among respondents who sought help after online attacks, the most common courses of action were to approach colleagues or management, law enforcement agencies, and private help — 13.4% in each case. 7% each turned to psychologists and lawyers, 4.2% to civil society organizations or trade unions, and only one woman (0.7%) went to court. This demonstrates either a lack of trust in the existing protection mechanisms, or a lack of knowledge thereof.
An even more disturbing trend is that journalists often fail to recognize the fact of violence itself. Only 46% of women immediately realized they had been targeted by an online attack. Others realized it later or not at all, even though it had all the characteristics of violence. This indicates a low level of awareness and insufficient tools for self-defense.
The role of newsrooms in this situation becomes critical — but, sadly, often passive. Only 1 in 20 journalists works in a newsroom with a formalized response policy for online attacks. Most either don’t know how their newsrooms respond in such situations, or receive only nominal support. There are almost no comprehensive protection mechanisms, legal support, or psychological assistance, especially for freelancers. More commonly, there are informal agreements, or no procedures at all. Newsroom response is usually limited to an internal discussion, verbal support, or publications on social media. Only some media outlets do provide legal or psychological assistance.
Newsrooms do provide support during online attacks, but it remains unstable and unsystematic. Most survey participants assessed it as medium: 30.3% gave it 3 points, 28.2% — 4 points on a scale from 1 to 5. This indicates the need to introduce clear, formalized response policies in newsrooms.
At the same time, journalists clearly articulate their needs: psychological and legal support, a clear course of action in the event of an attack, templates to report the attack to the police, knowledge of digital security, and training to learn to recognize violence. Many emphasize the need for solidarity and support by colleagues, newsrooms, and civil society organizations.
Although a third of the respondents indicated their newsrooms “always respond,” many don’t know how the newsroom acts in a crisis precisely. This creates a feeling of loneliness in the face of threat, intensifies the traumatic experience, and discourages people from continuing their work. This is often not because of reluctance to support colleagues, but due to lack of knowledge and special tools and a difficult financial situation in Ukrainian media.
Over a third of the surveyed journalists never had any training dedicated to online safety or combating gendered violence on the Internet. If such trainings did take place, they were mostly limited to digital hygiene issues. Topics such as recognizing online violence, emotional self-regulation, or supporting colleagues are virtually disregarded.
Women journalists themselves, on the other hand, are willing to learn and act. The most requested topics for training were:
– strategies for responding to online attacks (including legal aspects),
– psychological self-preservation,
– recognizing disinformation and manipulations,
– digital security.
Most respondents indicated they would be interested in having access to such materials in a convenient format, such as online courses, webinars, interactive PDF guides, or local trainings. This is a need to create a basic safety culture in newsrooms.
The responses showed that the responsibility for protecting women journalists should be shared — not only between the woman herself and her team, but also with the newsroom, the professional community, human rights organizations, platforms, and the state. Until this chain of support is established, no individual training initiative will be enough.
This needs assessment has been prepared as part of the initiative “Strengthening the Resilience of Women Journalists in Ukraine: Countering Online Violence and Gendered Disinformation,” implemented by the Women in Media NGO with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The views expressed herein solely belong to the authors.
The complete version of the analytical report:
- Please note that the guide “Steps for Newsroom to Take in the First 24 Hours Following an Online Attack against a Woman Journalist”: can be downloaded from our website.