A/HRC/44/52 often exposes indigenous women journalists to a greater risk of stigmatization and persecution in certain contexts, whether by State or non-State actors.37 56. The prevalence of gender stereotypes and prejudices means that the work of women journalists is often undervalued in many indigenous communities and that they encounter significant barriers to accessing key programming schedules and covering issues of general interest or the political agenda. 57. Specific attacks and abuses of lesbian and transgender women journalists are often underreported, inadequately documented and/or denounced. They range from threatening comments by readers to sexual harassment and violence and even murder. They can also include retaliation for covering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex issues. 58. Representation of minority groups in the media, including women from such groups, is a crucial means of promoting the participation of minorities in society and incorporating pluralistic approaches. However, despite these international standards, journalists from marginalized communities, particularly women journalists and media workers, continue to be underrepresented. 59. In many countries women of colour are particularly discriminated against, face negative assumptions about their ethnicity, preventing them from undertaking certain assignments, are subject to sweeping generalizations and are often passed over for white colleagues. 60. In addition, for women journalists who identify as members of ethnic or religious minorities, the harassment can be extreme. V. Risks and threats faced by women journalists and media workers reporting from war zones 61. Journalists and other media professionals face considerable danger when reporting from war zones, however many journalists want to work in the field regardless of the risks. As the nature of today’s conflicts have become more complex, media professionals face an increasing risk of being wounded, killed, detained or kidnapped while reporting. While in the past they were able to use their status as journalists for protection and as a means of communicating independently with different actors of the conflict, today they are becoming direct targets in their own right. For female international journalists that threat is exacerbated simply by the fact that they are women and they face an increased risk of sexual assault or rape at the hands of warring parties or the public. 62. Women war reporters also face discrimination and hostility from their bosses and colleagues. They experience sexual violence, although they are discouraged from complaining about assaults so that they can keep working. There are also threats related to the local environment, with male contacts often hired out of necessity to guard their lodging, drive their cars or act as informal translators. In such circumstances, women journalists are expected to carefully cultivate friendly relations and to avoid uncomfortable situations whereby they may be forced to reject sexual advances, which could lead to a predicament that is precarious at best or violent at worst. 63. Over the last decade, male and female reporters have been facing increasing threats, from abduction to imprisonment, kidnapping and ultimately murder, while women journalists are increasingly facing gang rape and sexual assault. Many women journalists have become freelance by necessity because they are fleeing different forms of harassment or abuse suffered in a media institution or outlet, or because they have been fired for complaining about discrimination or mistreatment. Once working independently, they no longer have the type of protection (including income safety) that they had when employed. Freelance women journalists in developing countries and in societies that lack press freedom are especially unlikely to be given any tools by the media organization that hire 37 12 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report 2017, vol. II, Annual Report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, ch. II.