Online and digital attacks.

 

The number of attacks taking place online and digitally has increased over the last year, from 14,0% in 2020 to 16.8% in 2021. They occurred in 23 countries and affected a total of 154 media companies, journalists, family members, and journalistic sources. Slovenia, with 13 cases, was the most affected country within the period, followed by Turkey (12, Serbia (10, and the United Kingdom (10. The re‐ spective alerts for all attacks performed online and digitally in the year 2021 in MFRR countries can be viewed here. An increasing number of threats sent via email, on social media, or websites were reported as awareness around this issue grew. Journalists’ and media freedom or ganisations have been warning of the mental health consequences of such threats on media professionals who may feel isolated, at risk, or defenceless in the face of such violent events. The MFRR identified a large majority of the cases (85 as harassment and psychological abuse. This ranges from threatening messages – particularly prominent in Serbia with 10 alerts – to insults, trolling, and attempts to discredit journalists or their work. In Malta, for example, a massive dis‐ information campaign targeted six inde‐ pendent media outlets and blogger Manuel Delia, creating spoof websites spreading untrue facts and sending fake emails to newsrooms. Women journalists were more likely to be attacked and harassed online, including sexual or family-related comments. In the United Kingdom, Telegraph journalist Camilla Tominey received threats on her website with mentions of her children and husband. In Spain, Maria Tikas, a sports journalist for Diario Sport faced numerous sexist and misogynistic insults on social media after she tweeted about a football player. In Italy, journalist Silvia Bergamin working for Il Mattino di Padova was dir‐ ectly quoted in more than 60 Facebook comments containing sexist insults and words such as “prostitute”. The most frequent source of attacks were private individuals. In 28 cases, the source was unknown at the time of writ‐ ing the alerts, meaning it could not be clearly identified if there was a private in‐ dividual or any group or organisation be‐ hind the attack. There was a significant number of alerts (documenting at‐ tacks from public figures in high-ranking positions actively contributing to the cre‐ ation of this toxic environment. This phenomenon was particularly com‐ mon in Slovenia, where the Prime Minister (PM Janez Jansa regularly used his official and private Twitter accounts to ex‐ press his dissatisfaction with a publica‐ tion or the little consideration he has for journalists. The country’s press agency, STA, was targeted multiple times during a contractual dispute opposing it to the government, with Jansa and the director of the government communication office (Ukom) accusing STA management of ly‐ ing, breaking the law, and hiding docu ments. The rhetoric is that media profes‐ sionals critical of government policy are “not telling the truth”. On Twitter again, Janez Jansa accused daily news show 24ur and its editor-in-chief of “persist‐ ently lying” about the COVID-19 pan‐ demic and significantly contributing to the death toll in the country through its re‐ porting. In Slovakia, the former Prime Min‐ ister and current leader of the opposition party, SMER, wrote on Facebook that Ak‐ tuality.sk’s editor-in-chief was “over‐ whelmed with hatred and stupidity”, adding that his staff were “just a bunch of hired servants”. In Luxembourg, a politi‐ cian shared an investigative journalist’s contact details in an anti-vaccination Telegram channel. The action, known as “doxxing”, led to a wave of threats, intim‐ idation, and insults by users of the group. Besides harassment and intimidation, journalists and their sources were ex‐ posed to surveillance in eight cases, not‐ ably in relation to the Pegasus scandal which broke in July 2021. In Hungary, Belgium, and France, a dozen journalists and media outlets were targeted by the Israeli spyware according to Forbidden Stories’ investigations. In two other cases, data such as location, contacts details, and journalists’ conversations were collected in order to track down journalistic sources under the pretext of contributing to ongo‐ ing judicial investigations. In Italy, at least seven journalists had their phones wiretapped by Sicilian prosecutors who were seeking to establish links between sea rescue NGOs’ alleged complicity in people smuggling and illegal immigration in the Mediterranean. In Portugal, for two months, four journalists were under sur‐ veillance.heir personal communications were accessible to the police, without au‐ thorisation, as part of a wider investiga‐ tion into high-level leaks related to the socalled E. Toupira corruption case. In Poland, a Gazeta Wyborcza reporter was stalked and smeared – pictures were taken near his house and a recording of the journalist’s phone call with a source was published – following his investiga‐ tions into the so-called “Wroclaw scheme”. The number of hacking and DDoS attacks remained relatively low, with five cases re‐ ported. Two cyber-attacks were related to reports about a local businessman’s al‐ leged links to drug trafficking in Cyprus. The Nuri Sılay and Özgür Gazete newspa‐ pers were targeted with millions of re‐ quests that caused them to crash. The hacking followed intimidation attempts, threatening calls, and pressure to take down the articles in question. It lasted for 15 days. In Spain, five media websites were rendered inaccessible or very slow for users for several days because of mul‐ tiple DDos attacks in late November. While cases of surveillance, cyber-attacks, and blocking access to online information still represent a small minority, the many cases of harassment, intimidation, and death threats are of great concern. Online violence requires as much attention as offline threats. It is clear that the impact it has on the journalists’ pro‐ fessional and personal lives must be taken seriously, as they may be the first steps towards “real world” violence.