A/HRC/44/52 untoward comments or advances, sexual innuendo and brief physical contact to actual sexual assault.27 37. In addition to the overt harassment faced by women journalists and media workers, in some countries they are also affected by outside factors, including inflexible working hours, partial or no access to reasonably priced and quality childcare, inadequate parental leave policies and negative social attitudes. The impact of such patterns of discrimination, which also affect other groups of women, is exacerbated by the long working hours typical of the organizational culture of many media outlets. 38. With regard to public media, the preliminary results of a worldwide survey conducted by the Global Alliance on Media and Gender and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) indicate that of a sample of 32 countries, only 15 per cent have allocated budgets to the promotion of gender equality among the staff of State-owned media. Thirty per cent of those countries have policies to ensure gender balance in media management positions and 18 per cent have policies in place to ensure the same balance among the staff of journalists. 28 C. Online violence 39. While the expansion of the Internet and digital platforms is creating new social digital spaces and transforming and reshaping society, it is also enabling new forms of online violence against women. Women journalists have become increasingly targeted as visible and outspoken representatives of women’s rights. In her report to the Human Rights Council in 2018, the Special Rapporteur specifically tackled the issue of online violence against women and explained that the violent and gendered nature of the threats against women journalists often led to self-censorship. Some resorted to the use of pseudonyms, while others maintained low online profiles, an approach that can have a detrimental impact on their professional lives and reputations. Others decided to suspend, deactivate or permanently delete their online accounts, or to leave the profession entirely (A/HRC/38/47, para. 29). 40. Ultimately, the online abuse against women journalists and women in the media is a direct attack on women’s visibility and their full participation in public life. The anonymity of perpetrators further heightens the fear of violence, resulting in the sense of insecurity and distress experienced by the victims. In addition to the impact on individuals, a major consequence of online and ICT-facilitated gender-based violence is a society where women no longer feel safe, either online or offline, given the widespread impunity for perpetrators of gender-based violence. Online violence against women journalists not only violates a woman’s right to live free from violence and to participate online but also undermines the exercise of democracy and good governance, and as such creates a democratic deficit (ibid.). 41. Indeed, over recent years women journalists have become increasingly impacted by this form of gender-based violence.29 Not only are they more exposed to online attacks than their male counterparts but they are also forced to contend with increasing online abuse (often misogynistic and with sexualized content), stalking and harassment. 30 42. Emerging forms of online violence against women such as “doxing”, “sextortion” and “trolling”, as well as the non-consensual distribution of intimate content (or “revenge porn”), are also being used to defame and silence women journalists. Technology has therefore transformed different forms of gender-based violence into something that can be 27 28 29 30 See International Federation of Journalists, “IFJ survey: one in two women journalists suffer genderbased violence at work”, 24 November 2017. See UNESCO, Media and Gender: a Scholarly Agenda for the Global Alliance on Media and Gender (Paris, UNESCO, 2014). UNESCO, World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development: Special Digital Focus 2015, p. 90. UNESCO, World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development 2017/2018. Global Report, p. 157. 9