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“Every female journalist expelled from a conflict zone is a peace process that loses its witness,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, addressing the UN this week.
She urged the government to go beyond promises and take real action to protect women media workers in the field.
“If the sender of the message is a woman, it is sexual, dehumanizing and relentless,” Ms. Ressa, co-founder of Philippine news organization Rappler.
As part of Women, Peace and Security Week, she spoke at a high-level event organized by the Permanent Mission of Greece, the gender equality body UN Womenand the United Nations educational and cultural agency, UNESCOwho fights for the protection of journalists.
‘Fight before it’s too late’
Ms Ressa, who has faced ongoing arrests, legal cases and online attacks, reiterated how intimidation can undermine journalists’ credibility and trust, threaten their safety and ultimately kill their resolve to continue reporting.
At the height of the attacks against him, he received 90 hate messages an hour.
These attacks illustrate how gender-based violence can be used to discredit women who challenge power.
“Kill the messenger to silence the message,” he explained on the show – Every Voice for Peace Matters: New Perspectives on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.
AI enabler
Artificial intelligence adds to the threat, allowing deepfakes, fake sexual images, cloned voices, and coordinated attacks to spread on a large scale.
According to UN Women Datanearly one in four women human rights defenders, activists and journalists report experiencing AI-induced harassment that can ultimately manifest as physical violence.
Recent research highlights how online attacks – once considered a “virtual” problem – are now spreading offline, impacting women’s safety, well-being and ability to participate freely in public debate.
Ms. Ressa called for online violence to be treated as such, citing the need for stronger accountability for perpetrators and technology companies that amplify abuses, continued funding for women-led journalism, and the inclusion of women journalists in peace and security discussions.
Women are reported to be victims of online violence.
‘This is the time’
Quoting the words of Mzia Amaglobeli, a Georgian journalist who is still imprisoned, Ms. Ressa explains how she holds the copy How to Fight a Dictator in court when he could not speak freely.
“What he said from his cell was, fight before it’s too late,” Ms. Ressa. “We’re getting there. This is it. This is it.”
He called on journalists, civil society, governments and international institutions to unite against a system that allows attacks on women journalists to go unchecked.
“We refuse to be victims,” he said. “The women here turned this attack into a story, and every time one of us stood up, others rallied behind us. Courage is contagious. But courage is not a protective strategy – UN member states are contagious.”
The meeting occurred 26 years after the adoption Security Council Resolution 1325which emphasizes the importance of women’s full participation in conflict prevention, resolution and peace building.
Keeping the voices of Afghan women alive
For Afghan journalist and media entrepreneur Hamida Aman, protecting female journalists means ensuring that millions of women are not excluded from public life altogether.
When launching Begum Radio in March 2021, the goal was to create a space where Afghan women could share experiences and access information relevant to their lives. Since the Taliban takeover, restrictions have made those efforts increasingly difficult.
Arriving at the studio, Radio Begum journalists hold an editorial meeting, prepare their show, and go on air.
Citing figures from the International Federation of Journalists, Aman said the number of female journalists in Afghanistan had fallen from around 2,800 before the takeover to less than 700.
“Being permitted to operate does not mean being free to operate,” he said, describing the oversight and administrative obstacles Radio Begum faced. The organization has been threatened with temporary closure, and several of its associates have been jailed for more than six months.
“If these journalists disappear, who will talk about the lives of Afghan women? Who will make their voices heard?” Asked Mrs. Aman.
Silencing collective stories
Protecting female journalists is not just about individual safety. It also relates to whose experiences of conflict are documented, whose voices shape public understanding, and whose contributions to peace are acknowledged.
“When women journalists are silenced, the women whose stories they tell are also silenced,” said UN Women Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination and Program Results, Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda. “So, it’s not just silencing journalists, it’s also silencing our collective stories.”
Women in conflict situations are often portrayed as victims, she said, even though they play a role in preventing violence, mediating disputes, defending communities and rebuilding society. When their experiences are not reported, people see only part of the reality of war, “half the picture of peace.”
The scale of the problem is enormous. According to a recent study according to UN Women and UNESCO, 75 percent of female journalists surveyed have experienced online violence. Forty-two percent attributed online attacks to harassment or assault in the physical world, up from 20 percent in 2020.
Meanwhile, between 2013 and 2023, coverage of the conflict increased more than sixfold, but only 5 percent of published articles focused on women’s war experiences. Only 0.04 percent named women leaders in the peace process, according to figures presented at the event. “We are not invisible,” Ms. Ressa in the women’s room in New York.
A Ukrainian teenager stands among the ruins of his destroyed school in Zhytomyr.
Begoñã Lasagabaster, Director of UNESCO’s Gender Equality Division, recalled the exhibition They Tell the World About Itdocuments nearly 200 female journalists from more than 25 countries who reported on the Spanish Civil War 90 years ago.
“While most of the world was counting the battles, these women were counting the lives – they wrote about hunger, displacement, about the impact of war on mothers, fathers, children, cities, countries,” she said, and with that “they changed the way the world looked at war.”
Protection must be action
An international framework to protect journalists already exists. Yet women journalists continue to face physical violence, legal harassment, psychological trauma, and online campaigns designed to discredit their reporting.
As International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists As November 2 approaches, UNESCO is preparing to launch a new campaign – Threats Grow, Impunity Remains – as well as new findings regarding journalist safety and impunity.
“Every vote for peace counts,” said Ms. Ressa, “but a voice only matters if it is heard, if the woman persists in being heard.”
