A/HRC/44/52 and home address were publicly leaked. Her home address was used to register her name on pornography and paedophile websites. 34 49. In a survey about female journalists’ perception of their own safety and freedom, 85 per cent of respondents said they felt less safe than they had five years earlier. They said that they faced worse harassment for covering key subjects, such as local or national politics or extremism. That harassment from readers and online trolls ranged from unsolicited sexual messages to threats of violence, rape or death and included the publication online of reporters’ private information.35 50. In some instances, threats of violence and abuse against female journalists are so severe that high-profile female journalists take multiple precautionary measures in case the threats made against them online transpire offline. 51. In addition to the psychological and professional harm that online abuse and harassment can cause to individuals, there are social harms, too. Of those adults who have experienced harassment online, many have also witnessed others being harassed. That can in turn lead to the silencing of people who might otherwise contribute to public debates, particularly women, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and people from racial or religious minorities, who see others like themselves being racially and sexually abused. 52. Despite growing evidence of online violence against and physical attacks on women journalists, many media organizations do not have formal policies or protocols in place to protect their employees. In a global study of women journalists conducted in 2018 by the International Women’s Media Foundation and Troll-Busters.com, 26 per cent of women journalists indicated that they did not know how to report threats and harassment. 36 Online and offline abuse is often underestimated by media management and minimized by colleagues, the authorities, law enforcement agents and others who are best positioned to provide support. IV. Situation of women journalists who face multiple and intersecting forms of violence 53. While women journalists face the same risks as their male peers when they investigate and report on corruption, organized crime and human rights violations, they also face specific gender-based risks owing to the fact of being women and at the intersection of other identities, such as race and ethnicity. The intersection of these multiple identities may increase the risk of certain women facing obstacles or difficulties in the full exercise of the right to freedom of expression, or may have a differentiated effect on certain groups of women. Such factors often also lead to particular forms of discrimination against those who make up those groups. 54. The underlying reasons for targeting any journalist are to undermine their credibility, to humiliate them or to discourage them from reporting on certain topics. When journalists are indigenous women, women belonging to minorities, and/or lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex women, they may face an added level of discrimination, in ways that often intersect with their indigenous, and/or minority or lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex identities. 55. In the particular case of indigenous women journalists, the risk of experiencing violence as a result of their work may increase, owing to the combination of structural patterns affecting community media; intersectional discrimination against indigenous women; and the high public profile they may acquire in defence of the rights of indigenous peoples and/or the rights of women in their territories. The combination of such factors 34 35 36 See Amnesty International, “#Toxic Twitter - violence and abuse against women online” (2018), section 2. See International Women’s Media Foundation and Troll-Busters.com, “Attacks and harassment. The impact on female journalists and their reporting”. See “Attacks and harassment. The impact on female journalists and their reporting”, p. 41. 11