Ahead of International Women’s Day observed on March 8, the One Free Press Coalition in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) are highlighting 10 cases of women journalists who have faced retaliation or threats because of their reporting. 

While some of the threats faced by these journalists are widespread press freedom issues, women journalists face unique challenges. In particular, women  journalists face a greater amount of harassment online, as well as workplace harassment, with IWMF estimating that a third of female journalists have considered changing jobs because of threats. A 2020 UNESCO report found that globally 73% of women journalists had faced online harassment, which in some cases turned into physical threats and had serious impacts on mental health.

Journalists seeking guidance on digital and psychosocial safety can find them here, including tools for handling online harassment.

1. Sedef Kabas (Turkey)

Authorities detained Kabaş, a freelance journalist and former television anchor, on January 22 for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during an appearance on a political debate show, in addition to a charge for “insult of a public official.” Prosecutors asked to jail Kabas to 11 years and 8 months on both charges. This past February, while Kabaş was in detention awaiting trial on that criminal insult charge, President Erdoğan separately filed a civil suit seeking $18,405 in damages.

2. Hala Fuad Badhawi (Yemen)

In December 2021, military intelligence forces in Hadramout province detained Badhawi, and she is currently held in the central province prison. Colleagues believe Badhawi was detained because of her writing on corruption in the province. CPJ was told she will likely be referred to prosecutors on charges of membership in a terrorist cell, incitement to destabilize local security, and smuggling improvised explosive devices.   

3. Elena Milashina (Russia)

An investigative reporter at Novaya Gazeta, Milashina has been forced to flee her home after threats from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. At least five journalists at the outlet have been killed since CPJ first started collecting data in 1992. Milashina is seriously concerned for her safety, and this is not the first time she has faced threats, as she and human rights lawyer Marina Dubrovina were beaten in the Chechen capital last March.

4. Nomthandazo Maseko (Eswatini)

Maseko, a reporter for the privately owned news website Swati Newsweek, was assaulted by correctional services staff after livestreaming a protest by members of the Swaziland Liberation Movement (Swalimo) activist group outside a local prison. When officers spotted her in her car, they hauled her out, slapped, kicked, beat her with sticks, and an unidentified officer pointed a gun at her and threatened to shoot.

5. Rana Ayyub (India)

Washington Post columnist and freelance journalist Ayyub has long been a victim of online trolling and retaliatory legal threats, but began receiving a renewed onslaught of threats on Twitter after she tweeted her criticism of Saudi Arabia’s government role in the ongoing Yemen war, receiving over 26,000 tweets in response, including rape and death threats.

6. Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)

In December, Vietnamese authorities sentenced journalist Trang to nine years in prison. Trang covers human rights topics, including police abuses and environmental issues. Trang has faced harassment in the past for her reporting. Days before her arrest in October 2020, Trang released a letter titled, “Just in case I am imprisoned.”

7. Julia Gavarrete (El Salvador)

El Faro reporter Gavarrete is one of more than 30 journalists in El Salvador who discovered recently that they were a target of Pegasus spyware surveillance. Gavarrete covers politics, health, environment and gender for El Faro, and the outlet has been singled out alongside other independent outlets by President Nayib Bukele and other Salvadoran officials.

8. Kalúa Salazar (Nicaragua)

Salazar, editor-in-chief of radio and television outlet La Costeñísima, has faced ongoing legal battles, harassment and surveillance from authorities, including physical attacks and preventing her from leaving her home. Salazar told CPJ that she believes the harassment is tied to the outlet’s coverage and a desire to silence the work of La Costeñisima, one of the few independent media outlets in Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast.

9. Lourdes Maldonado (Mexico)

Maldonado, a veteran broadcast journalist, was shot dead in Tijuana this January. Maldonado had previously been attacked because of her work and was registered in the Mexican government’s program to protect journalists. She is one of five journalists killed in Mexico since the start of 2022.

10. Maria Ressa (Philippines)

Journalist Maria Ressa, a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize awardee, faces extreme threats in the Philippines, including state-orchestrated attacks against her and Rappler, the news organization that she founded. This follows her conviction on a criminal cyber libel charge, part of ongoing efforts from authorities in the Philippines to silence any critical reporting.

Ahead of World Radio Day on February 13, the monthly “10 Most Urgent” list from the One Free Press Coalition focuses on radio journalists around the globe who have faced retaliation for their reporting.

According to UNESCO, radio remains the most popular medium globally for people to consume news, and for a century has remained a vital source of information for communities. However, as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has found in their reporting, in certain authoritarian countries, like Venezuela, there has steadily been a decline in the number of radio stations as a result of press crackdowns. Since 1992, CPJ has documented at least 275 cases of radio journalists killed in connection to their work, and 19 radio journalists were imprisoned in 2021.

1. Nguyen Van Hoa (Vietnam)

Nguyen Van Hoa, a Vietnamese reporter and videographer with Radio Free Asia (RFA), is serving a seven-year prison sentence, to be followed by three years of house arrest, on anti-state charges. Prosecutors said the blogger’s reporting, including on a 2016 industrial accident, was aimed at “propagating against, distorting, and defaming the government.” He has been placed in solitary confinement and has been physically abused in prison.

2. Wan Yiu-sing (China)

Wan Yiu-sing, an internet radio host and commentator who covers political issues in mainland China and Hong Kong for the independent internet radio channel D100, was arrested by Hong Kong police in February 2021. Wan’s arrest came amid authorities’ crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. He is being held in detention while on trial for alleged sedition and money laundering, and has had to be hospitalized while in detention.

3. Thomas Awah Junior (Cameroon)

Cameroonian journalist Thomas Awah Junior was arrested in January 2017, and is serving an 11-year sentence in Kondengui Central Prison in Yaoundé on false news and anti-state charges. He is in poor health, and in 2019, he was sentenced to an additional three years in jail, to run concurrently with his original sentence, for his alleged role in a prison protest.

4. John Wesley Amady and Wilguens Louis-Saint (Haiti)

Suspected gang members ambushed and shot Amady and Louis-Saint while they were reporting on the lack of security in Laboule 12, a gang-controlled area in the Port-au-Prince commune of Pétion-Ville. Amady was on assignment for the broadcaster Radio Écoute FM and Louis-Saint worked for the online outlets Télé Patriote and Tambou Verité. 

5. Htet Htet Khine (Myanmar)

Myanmar freelance journalist Htet Htet Khine, a producer for BBC Media Action, was arrested in 2021 under the Unlawful Associations Act, according to news reports. She is being held in pre-trial detention at an undisclosed location. Authorities charged Htet Htet Khine under Section 17(1) of the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act for allegedly working for a banned radio station and harboring fellow journalist Sithu Aung Myint while he fled an arrest warrant.

6. Frenchie Mae Cumpio (Philippines)

Arrested in 2020, Cumpio, executive director of the Eastern Vista news website and a radio news anchor at Aksyon Radyo-Tacloban DYVL 819, frequently covered alleged police and military abuses. Cumpio had previously faced harassment and intimidation from people she believed to be security agents. She is currently held in pretrial detention on charges of illegal firearms possession.

7. Svetlana Prokopyeva (Russia)

Prokopyeva is a regional correspondent for Radio Svoboda, and a 2020 CPJ International Press Freedom awardee. In early 2019, armed law enforcement officers raided Prokopyeva’s apartment, seized her equipment, passport, and personal belongings, and interrogated her at a police station. In 2020, Prokopyeva was convicted of “justifying terrorism” and ordered to pay 500,000 rubles ($6,980) in fines. The court also ordered the confiscation of Prokopyeva’s mobile phone and laptop computer, and she remains on Russia’s terrorist list in retaliation for her work.

8. April Ehrlich (USA)

In September 2020, police arrested local radio reporter April Ehrlich in Portland, OR, while she was covering evictions of people living in a city park. Police charged her with criminal trespassing, interfering with a peace officer, and resisting arrest. Some of these misdemeanors could come with prison terms up to 364 days and fines up to $6,250. 

9. Gulchehra Hoja (China/USA)

After joining Radio Free Asia in the U.S., journalist and 2020 IWMF Courage in Journalism awardee Gulchehra Hoja was sent a “red notice” from China, banning her from returning home. Today, members of her family have been deliberately targeted with constant government surveillance, harassment and have endured numerous detentions in retaliation for her coverage of human rights, and her work at Radio Free Asia, according to Gulchehra and IWMF.

10. Fernando Solijon (Philippines)

Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot Solijon in 2013. Solijon, a radio commentator with DxLS Love Radio of Iligan City, was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital. During his regular radio program, Solijon frequently criticized local politicians, and had received threats for his reporting. Almost ten years on, partial impunity remains in his case, as not all those responsible for his death have been held to account.

Ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the “10 Most Urgent” list for January 2022 focuses on the dire state of press freedom in China. Media outlets worldwide unite as the One Free Press Coalition to publish this list and draw attention to the most pressing cases of threats against journalists.

This past year, China continued to imprison and detain journalists without consequence, as well as weaponize surveillance and physically threaten journalists to censor them. According to CPJ’s 2021 census, China remains the world’s worst jailer of journalists for the third year in a row, with 50 behind bars. 2021 also marked a new concerning trend for the country, with the list including journalists held in Hong Kong for the first time since CPJ started collecting data in 1992.  

1. Jimmy Lai Chee-ying

Hong Kong media entrepreneur and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is serving a 20-month prison sentence, while also awaiting trial on national security and fraud charges, facing a potential life sentence. Lai founded Next Digital Limited, a media company that published the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and Next Magazine, both forced to close in 2021 due to pressure and ongoing threats from authorities.

2. Zhang Zhan  

It has been over one year since the independent journalist was sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after publishing videos critical of the government’s Covid-19 response. She has been on an ongoing hunger strike behind bars and is now in critically ill health.

3. Ilham Tohti

Uighur writer, blogger and scholar Ilham Tohti is serving a life sentence on charges of separatism. He is the founder of the Uighur news website Uighurbiz, which was published in Chinese and Uighur, and focused on Uighur rights and social issues, and has been denied freedom since 2014.

4. Huang Qi

Huang Qi, publisher of the human rights news website 64 Tianwang, is serving a 12-year sentence on accusations of “deliberately leaking state secrets” and “illegally providing state secrets to foreign countries.” He is critically ill and has been denied medical treatment, as well as denied visits and communication with his mother, who is dying of cancer.

5. Wan Yiu-sing

Wan Yiu-sing, an internet radio host and commentator who covers political issues in mainland China and Hong Kong for the independent internet radio channel D100, was arrested by Hong Kong police in February. Wan’s arrest came amid authorities’ crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. He is being held in detention while on trial for alleged sedition and money laundering, and was hospitalized last February due to undisclosed health issues.      

6. Sophia Huang Xueqin

Chinese freelance journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin disappeared on September 19, along with labor activist Wang Jianbing, one day before she was scheduled to board a plane to the United Kingdom to study abroad. On September 27, it was reported that both had been detained for allegedly “inciting subversion of state power” and are being held under “residential surveillance at a designated location,” a form of extrajudicial detention.

7. Haze Fan

Fan is a reporter and producer covering breaking business news in China for Bloomberg News, and despite no charges being brought against her, she continues to be held in pretrial detention for allegedly endangering national security.

8. Zhou Weilin

A reporter for Chinese-language human rights news website Weiquanwang, Zhou has published news and commentary on social media about labor issues and disability rights. Zhou is currently serving a sentence of three years and six months on charges of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, and he plans to appeal.

9. Gulmire Imin

Uighur journalist Gulmire Imin is serving a 19-year, 8-month prison sentence on charges of separatism, leaking state secrets and organizing an illegal demonstration. In 2009, police arrested Imin, who wrote articles critical of the government that year, and she was one of several administrators of Uighur-language web forums who were arrested after the 2009 riots in Urumqi, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. 

10. Gulchehra Hoja

After joining Radio Free Asia in the U.S. in 2001, journalist Gulchehra Hoja was sent a “red notice” from China, banning her from returning home. Today, members of her family have been deliberately targeted with constant government surveillance and harassment and have endured numerous detentions in retaliation to her journalism and her work at Radio Free Europe, according to Gulchehra and IWMF. Following Gulchehra’s interviews with escapees, prison guards and other officials, in May 2019 she testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the dangers of reporting on human rights.