Chapter 11: Digital Safety: Perspectives from Women Journalists in Uganda

The Internet is an enabler for universal access to information as evidenced by the plurality of voices online. Journalists use online digital spaces to check what organisations are doing, keep in touch with their audiences, search for breaking news, and gather additional information through such sites as Facebook or X (formerly Twitter), and this has positively impacted their professional work (NewsLab, 2019). Journalists, however, have also become regular targets of online attacks, including bullying and intimidation, which puts plurality and diversity of voices at risk (HRNJ-Uganda, 2013). This requires a re-conceptualisation of journalists’ security from mere physical protection from harm to reflect how 21st-century threats to journalists’ safety and security involve digital risks, especially to those who operate within the online environment. Threats often appear in the comments sections of articles authored by women journalists, but such threats may also include graphic imagery in their inboxes or pop-ups on their social media profiles that allude to rape or physical violence.

The last decade has seen an increased drive by international organisations and civil society to focus on raising awareness about the safety and security issues that confront women working in the media across the world. Some steps have been taken to ensure online safety for women journalists at the international level. For example, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ, 2018) launched an awareness campaign on social media, the Byte Back Campaign, using the hashtag #DefendMyVoiceOnline to encourage women not to abandon this virtual space when faced with abuse. A safety handbook for women journalists has been developed by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT, 2017) with support from UNESCO as a concrete and practical guidebook on safety and security with recommendations for women journalists working in war and conflict.

Despite such interventions, a recent case of gendered online harassment targeting Maria Ressa, a journalist in the Philippines, resulted in 90 trolling hate messages per hour, and several legal cases have been brought against her online publication, The Rappler. Ressa was recently acquitted of tax evasion (Associated Press, 2023). This high-profile example shows that measures to improve online security and safety are still too limited and contain no guarantees that harassers will be punished (IWMF, 2016). This chapter explores the safety and security experiences of Ugandan women journalists in online environments through three key questions:

1. What is the nature of harassment that women journalists encounter online?

2. How do women journalists navigate for their safety online?

3. What are recommendations for female journalists’ security and safety online?

Uganda has a vibrant media environment whose operations are guaranteed by the constitution. Article 29(1) of the 1995 Ugandan constitution proclaims that everyone shall have the right to ‘freedom of speech and expression which shall include freedom of the press and other media’. This provision is in tandem with the codification of access to information as a basic human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes freedom of opinion, expression, and information. In Uganda, the right to access information is explicit in Article 41 of the 1995 Constitution:

Uganda currently boasts of over 250 radio stations and over 40 television stations (Government Citizen Interaction Centre (GCIC), 2022), and the majority of these organisations publish and broadcast a variety of print and online media. The utilisation of the Internet for media in Uganda aligns with the recognition of the Internet as critical to the promotion of the right to access to information by the United Nations (CIPESA, 2017). Indeed, statistics indicate that there are about 11.7 million Internet users in Uganda (Kemp, 2023), and the number is growing steadily, thanks in large part to the adoption of mobile phones. A total of 30.55 million cellular mobile connections are active in Uganda (Kemp, 2023). Furthermore, as part of the ‘MYUG’ free Wi-Fi project that is being rolled out at the time of writing, Uganda currently has 300 active sites that provide free Internet access in the Kampala central business district and parts of Entebbe in central Uganda (Uganda National Information Communication Technology-NITA, 2023). If the full roll-out is successful, then the increased online penetration will also reach rural populations who will benefit from the affordances of digital spaces. The number of online publications in Uganda is already growing, and the mainstream media has an online presence to connect and grow their audience. This means that digital spaces are new and important work environments for women journalists.

Despite these encouraging developments, the latest 2024 World Press Freedom Index ranked Uganda at 128 out of 180 countries assessed. The report reveals further that Ugandan journalists, who are critical of government continue to face intimidation and violence from security services on daily basis (RSF, 2024). This raises safety and security concerns for women journalists in Uganda because they are not spared from arbitrary arrests or beatings (RSF, 2019). Moreover, Uganda has instituted a social media law that discourages online activity, stifles free expression, and creates new restrictions (Wanyama, 2022). Such a hostile environment is rife with protection risks that may be faced by women journalists online. The country has witnessed media and social media shutdowns, ongoing arrests, threats, and harassment of journalists and bloggers, all of which paints a worrying scenario (Eckey, 2017). The intimidation of journalists often works, and self-censorship breeds an information gap and lack of accountability to the public (Kaija, 2018). What is more, Ugandan journalists continue to face fear of arrest, harassment, low remuneration, a lack of policies to secure female journalists, and long working hours (Okoth, 2018).

Female journalists in Uganda have adopted several strategies to deal with online harassment. Walulya and Selnes (2023) established that some women journalists in Uganda have abandoned beats that are more susceptible to online harassment. Other strategies used to deal with online harassment include withdrawing from spaces where mob harassment and negative messages are prevalent and blocking perpetrators from their contacts (Semakula, 2019). In persistent cases, the victims (female journalists) report to their superiors and government authorities. As Semakula (2019) reports:

Another technique women journalists employ to negotiate online harassment is self-censorship to prevent attacks against them and their media outlets. They do this by double-checking their messages before sharing them to edit out statements or words with the potential to annoy sections of online mobs (Nakiwala, 2020; Walulya & Selnes, 2023). Alier (2021) observed that censorship may sometimes include avoiding sensitive stories or choosing soft angles or a story published but with all the important facts omitted for the safety of the journalist. This censorship is detrimental to journalism and society at large, since it deprives citizens of critical information necessary for the functioning of a democracy (Walulya & Selnes, 2023). Women journalists also hide their identities online as a defence mechanism. Instead of using their actual names and pictures, some use pseudonyms and dummy pictures to confuse their potential attackers – both online and offline (Alier, 2021).

How digital spaces facilitate the work of women journalists in Uganda is an important aspect of how these women navigate their safety and security in online environments and can be appreciated by applying the theoretical lens of technological affordance. Affordance is a key concept that enables the understanding and analysis of social media technology and the relations between the technology and its users (Bucher & Helmond, 2018). We view social media platforms as open spaces for the expression of opinions without gatekeeping that give everyone an equal opportunity to engage, interact, and share their views. Consequently, women journalists, as goal-oriented actors, perceive social media in terms of how it can be used, including how it can help them meet their journalistic goals (Pozzi et al., 2014; Schrock, 2015; Volkoff & Strong, 2017). A single technology can result in multiple action possibilities because individuals have agency over their user practices and habits (Schrock, 2015). In these online spaces, women journalists engage with the public, and this interaction is affected by how they are perceived by their audiences in those spaces.

The study also employed objectification theory to understand the interaction of women journalists in online spaces. The theory highlights elements of ‘degrad[ation] and coercion’ (Cuklanz, 2016, p. 9) that women face in digital media environments that hinder their participation. It gives a framework through which we can understand the genesis of the threats and violations that women encounter in digital spaces while practising journalism. Women journalists worldwide are challenged with gender power struggles within traditional and online media environments because they are culturally looked at as women first and foremost. Objectification theory postulates that the lived experiences of particular groups of people can generate knowledge, perspectives, and ways of thinking about a given situation (Winn & Cornelius, 2020). It allows scholars and researchers to appreciate the impact of sexual objectification on the lives of women ‘as well as how they manage, cope with, and resist these experiences’ (Szymanski et al., 2011, p. 7). As Calogero (2012) noted, women journalists are objectified sexually online through sexual comments, exposure to sexualised images, sexual harassment, and sexual violence, among other behaviours. The theory of objectification therefore provides a framework for examining how women journalists in Uganda experience the digital media environment.

A qualitative research approach comprising both focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews was adopted for data collection to enable an intensive and detailed examination of a case (Bryman, 2012). Five FGDs (numbered 1 through 5, each between 7 participants) were conducted with 35 women drawn from a database at the Uganda Media Women Association of 400 women journalists using a simple random sampling technique. This sample size is consistent with Israel’s (1992) recommendation of 10–30 participants for small-scale studies. The approach encouraged highly participatory and interactive engagements on issues related to the safety and security of women journalists. Each of the five FGDs dealt with a sub-theme under the broader topic of ‘safety and security of women journalists in online and offline environments’, and the data presented in this chapter was collected during FGD 4, which specifically discussed the sub-theme of ‘handling of personal safety and security in online environments’, FGDs were appropriate because we sought to explore attitudes, opinions, and perceptions through flexible and open discussions between the selected respondents (Kumar, 2011).

In-depth interviews were conducted with two women journalists, referred to pseudonymously here as ‘Respondent 1’ and ‘Respondent 2’, who had recently experienced online safety threats and security violations. These two case stories of women journalists were important for the gathering of personal reflections on the research question that was included in the FGDs data collection. Respondent 1 was a reporter with a leading private broadcast media house who faced online harassment from a high-ranking general in the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces and his followers that transitioned into physical threats. This respondent had to quit her job. Respondent 2 had faced many online attacks (which had also further degenerated into physical threats) for stories uploaded online. The discussion in this chapter is based solely on the findings derived from the two in-depth interviews and the FGD that specifically examined the safety and security experiences of Ugandan women journalists in online environments.

The majority of the women journalists sampled were younger than 35 – in other words, they fall under the youth category who utilise online platforms in their daily life. The youth in Uganda (18–30 years) make up 22.7 per cent out of 45.9 million people (UBOS, 2024). Overall, 78 per cent of Uganda’s population are under 35, and these figures are expected to double in the next 25 years (Lirri, 2021). Increased Internet access has given these young people more latitude to actively participate in online spaces (Deutsche Welle, 2018). The participants reported an average professional experience of five years as journalists. This makes them novice journalists and vulnerable to digital threats as they interact in online environments. The study participants had all worked with media houses that have online platforms and reported several challenges they faced while interacting in these spaces as ‘women journalists’.

Respondents reported that they use digital platforms to execute their journalistic duties and identified their many benefits to support faster communication and dissemination of information while in the field, more efficient engagement with sources and follow up on stories, and a larger readership, as well as getting story tips. Oftentimes, women journalists are harassed because of the stories they post online:

This statement shows how critical online safety is in the digital era, when most journalists rely on the Internet to perform their tasks efficiently. Respondents confirmed various forms of online harassment either through personal experiences or having heard about them from colleagues and sources. For example, a respondent reported online cases of objectification where netizens can make the subject personal, beyond the story. ‘This is very common where people attack you not in line with what you do, but they focus on your personality’ (Respondent 2). Respondent 1 confirms online attacks against her family for simply reporting a political story: ‘If you write a “critical” story about the National Resistance Movement or about the National Unity Platform, they will attack you’.

The findings also established that women journalists face gender-related safety risks and threats in digital spaces, including cyberstalking, trolling, obscene remarks, unwanted sexual advances and sexually evocative pictures, and sexually explicit jokes. These acts go beyond online spaces to the physical environment where women journalists also face physical threats and abuse. These threats are enabled by cyberstalkers who collect personal information and updates available online that can be used to blackmail and harm women journalists. One respondent described how a person who has

Online platforms have also been used for blackmail and to damage the reputation of women journalists through, for example, releasing of unpleasant information about them. Another respondent shared a bad experience of receiving personal information about their family and their whereabouts from attackers:

Sexual harassment both online and offline was reported to be a major issue affecting women journalists as they go about their work. Women journalists also noted that while doing their work in digital spaces, they get persistent advances from male sources and colleagues who assume that the women will welcome the sexual or romantic interest at some point:

One FGD participant shared when she had once found herself in this situation:

Women journalists are concerned about hackers who obtain their personal information by manipulating digital security to access their online accounts. ‘I do not know how many times my accounts have received notifications of people trying to hack into my social media accounts’ (Respondent 2). Another respondent shared that: ‘When my account got hacked into, I was called by my cousin that they were seeing bad (nude) pictures […] I checked and deleted them’ (Respondent 1). An FGD participant reported that some people use fake or bot accounts to troll women journalists: ‘They use bots to troll you, to degrade you, and to show the public that you are disqualified and that you don’t fit to be a journalist’. Participants in FGDs were also concerned about the contradictory comments they receive when they make posts on given subjects and how these are often the first manoeuvre in what degenerates into abusive attacks: ‘They will always comment to the contrary […] they will provoke you in their comments’. Another interview respondent noted that there were so many forms and tones of harassment and how they are all based on the audience’s expectations: ‘because you work on TV and they hear you on radio, they expect you to belong to a certain (high-class) category, and when they realize that you are not in that category, they will go all out on you’ (Respondent 1).

Respondents were not sure about in-house policies that specifically tackled online safety and security and opined that individual journalists must guard their safety. A respondent shared that it was easy for women journalists to be harassed and abused because the perpetrators are sure that it is their nature not to react: ‘When you react back, it also becomes an issue; they will start questioning your qualifications, your ethics, your employer, and how you ended up in that media house – when you disrespect the viewers’ (Respondent 1).

There are different levels of censorship (both by the regulator and the employer) on online standards – that indicate a journalist should not express their opinions. From this point of view, participants observed that safety and protection start with the individual and advised female journalists to ‘be alert with ears on the ground, be careful with personal information on social media like Facebook and to be smart in taking decisions while in the field’ (FGD participant). One respondent shared her encounter with security personnel when she was summoned over a comment she made on the social media platform X:

Women journalists feel that journalism is not safe for their gender, and this has resulted in many abandoning the profession such that there are few women covering hard news or political beats, and the public are denied a diversity of voices and opinions. Many female journalists report on health, where they deal with press conferences and ministerial press releases and reports, without venturing into investigative pieces:

Another respondent admits that she found herself doing stories that she never enjoyed:

The findings indicate that women journalists feel that they are not safe when practising journalism. They now tread carefully to the extent of abandoning the profession to be safe from online harassment. The safety of women journalists in online spaces needs to be given due attention and consideration if they are to survive and thrive in such harsh environments.

Respondents observed that newsrooms needed to do much more to protect and ensure the safety of women journalists online because they are more vulnerable to safety and security violations and threats than men. Women journalists feel that they need to be believed when they come out to expose the violations and unpleasant situation they experience while executing their work rather than being questioned. Women journalists expressed knowledge of the laws that protect journalists against digital safety risks and violations while going about their work. For example, they were able to list some of the offenses defined in the Computer Misuse Act of 2011, including offensive communication and cyberstalking. Nevertheless, women journalists need to be well informed about digital safety tools:

Limited knowledge of digital protection laws and the responsibility of Internet service providers in ensuring the protection of personal data was identified as another challenge to women journalists’ safety and security online. This calls for training of women journalists. As one respondent testified, such training would have helped protect her online accounts from hackers: ‘I would have lost both my Facebook and X accounts if I didn’t know other safety protocols that require another layer of authentication besides two-factor authentication’ (Respondent 2).

Other women journalists learn to cope with abusive attacks as a form of resilience in executing their work:

The preceding data reveals the nature of online harassment faced by female journalists, the coping mechanisms they employ, and their proposed recommendations for the improvement of online safety for women journalists.

Online harassment has taken various forms, including trolling, cyberstalking, obscene remarks, unwanted sexual advances, sexually evocative pictures, and sexually explicit jokes. Sometimes women journalists face physical attacks because of their online activities. These experiences further illustrate the mechanisms adopted by women journalists in Uganda to navigate online challenges. The respondents also proposed a number of steps that ought to be taken to alleviate the already precarious situation. This section discusses these key findings in light of the presented literature and theoretical perspectives.

The majority of women journalists who participated in the study were young and still early in their journalism careers. Digital media platforms facilitate the accomplishment of their journalistic roles and the development of their experiences and competencies. This finding that online platforms offer women journalists faster communication and dissemination of information is consistent with affordance theory’s approach to understanding and analysing social media technology and its relations with users (Bucher & Helmond, 2018). Despite the media affordances that digital platforms offer, they are also a source of oppression and discrimination against women (Gallagher, 2003). The present study’s findings indicate that there is a great deal of objectification of women journalists in online spaces, where they are attacked for their gender and not their journalistic work or abilities. This pattern of behaviour is the focus of the objectification theory, which highlights the structures of power that systematically portray women as objects rather than active subjects in the production of media content (Gallagher, 2003). The findings have also revealed that women journalists have braved varying forms of online threats, including physical violations.

Attacks on women journalists while in online environments are a powerful factor that influences women journalists to keep off digital spaces to avoid the dangers that might arise from posting journalistic material. The struggles that women face in the media environment have hindered their potential to advance in the profession (Cuklanz, 2016). Our findings demonstrate that women journalists tend to concentrate on such safer beats as health, fashion, tourism, and press conferences, which often limits their journalistic potential. For instance, in 2017, NTV reporter Gertrude Uwitware was attacked by security officers for using Facebook to express her support for a local campaign that was aimed at compelling the government to provide free menstruation supplies (i.e. sanitary towels) to all school-going girls. Uwitware was kidnapped at gunpoint, forced into a car, and driven to an unknown location, where she was tortured and threatened (RSF, 2017). She was also ordered to delete all her Twitter and Facebook posts deemed too critical of the first family. She consequently quit active journalism. Respondents agreed that such violations have created a situation of self-caution and self-censorship among women journalists and media houses that negatively impacts their role not only of disseminating news and information but also of watching over government actions. This finding aligns with Walulya and Selnes’s (2023) finding that women journalists have abandoned reporting certain beats that are more susceptible to online harassment. This is a real contemporary problem that needs urgent attention since studies (Nakiwala, 2020; Walulya & Selnes, 2023) have shown a striking absence of female voices in news items that concern women in specific ways.

The women journalists who participated in this study are often threatened by the repeated use of electronic communication to harass them. Hackers take advantage of their information online to damage their reputation and journalistic integrity. They are concerned about stalkers who get into their physical space aided by online information to blackmail and threaten their lives, sometimes by releasing private information. Those who do not withstand such challenges usually leave the profession, and this results in fewer women’s voices and the underrepresentation of their issues in the media. This is self-censorship, a technique that women journalists have embraced to prevent online attacks against them (Nakiwala, 2020; Walulya & Selnes, 2023). The findings further revealed that women journalists were not adequately protected by their media organisations and are usually on their own as they fight off threats and violations in digital spaces. As they cope with self-censorship, women journalists expressed discomfort about how media houses censor their use of digital spaces such that their appreciation of the affordances offered by digital spaces for the execution of journalistic work is curtailed.

The study established that there was a general lack of knowledge on digital security and protection, including matters of safety risks, violations, and protection. Women journalists need to be trained in digital safety and security because such training will be beneficial in building their confidence and resilience around digital spaces as a way of coping and advancing their journalistic calling. Indeed, the presence of women in the media is an opportunity for gendered discourse that may create a sense of self-determinism to naturally embrace challenges within online spaces (Ryan & Deci, 2002). In other words, targeted training will give women journalists an opportunity to actualise their sense of self and human potential to overcome such work challenges, including the pervasive sexual harassment that extends from digital spaces to physical environments.

This chapter discussed how women journalists in Uganda have faced threats and violations in digital spaces as they strive to have their voices heard or represented in the media. While online spaces have been projected as free and open, where users are supposed to interact at an equal level, this study of women journalists’ interactions reveals that gender biases are exported from physical environments to online spaces and vice versa. The study has established that women journalists encounter digital security threats and violations in online spaces that hinder their work. They experience gender-related violations, abuses, and safety risks that oftentimes transcend to offline environments yet, when reported, their descriptions are rarely believed. We argue that as digital spaces become more crucial for media work, attention needs to shift to make them safe for women journalists to freely work. Women voices should be promoted in digital spaces, and media organisations must support women journalists through online safety policies and training such that they can thrive. Different stakeholders should ensure that online safety is strengthened to facilitate transparent and accountable mechanisms for the protection of media diversity.