On the job

A Filipina radio journalist was once held hostage and threatened by a group of drunk narcotics policemen. Her supposed crime? She was holding a handheld radio.

The female journalist happened to be waiting for a motorboat which would take her to an island for a coverage there, when the narcotics group, who was in a nearby cottage saw her and found her suspicious because of her handheld radio, a tool she uses as a radio reporter.

“Suddenly, one of the men in the group ordered his companions to confiscate my handheld radio and brought me inside the cottage where they were having a drinking spree. I tried to run away but they held my wrist,” said the journalist. Her ordeal ended when local cops saw the commotion.

Here’s another story. A journalist, also female, was banned from attending a coverage, and to make sure she left the place, she was escorted out by goons. Just like in the movies.

And then there’s this story of online intimidation, also from a female journalist.

“In 2022, my family and friends were sent anonymous messages on Facebook and Instagram trying to discredit my name by linking me with an alleged affair and an abortion to a newsroom colleague. Not content, the perpetrator created a social media account and started posting my photos with mutilation. The perpetrator tagged me, my students and other colleagues, all saying negative things about me. Anonymous emails were also sent to my employers containing the same hate message,” narrated the journalist.

The details are deliberately sketchy so as to protect the identities of the journalists which have all been kept anonymous.

Newswomen’s Profile

These are just some of the stories that came out from a preliminary study on the situation of women journalists in the Philippines and the threats they experience while doing their jobs.

The study “Newswomen’s Profile: Exploratory Research on the Situation of Filipino Women Journalists,” was conducted by the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU)’s Department of Communication and Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ) and surveyed 129 Filipino women journalists online from May 2 to July 15, 2024.

The study was presented last week, detailing the sad situation about women journalists in our country. It’s still preliminary and further detailed analysis will be done.

But the initial findings are already very disturbing:

“Studies from all over the world have found that women journalists experience intimidation, harassment and even death threats – online and in the real world – so often these experiences are considered part and parcel of the job.

“This study, surveying 129 women journalists from across the country and across different platforms, validated those findings, presenting the profile and plight of Filipino women journalists.

“It found that more than half of women journalists are single, three-fourths have either an undergraduate or a master’s degree, more than half work full-time for news organizations, but more than one-fourth still receive salaries below the minimum wage. More women experience physical than online intimidation, harassment and abuse.

“The most frequently named perpetrators of physical sexual harassment are sources and contacts, government officials, colleagues, and men in uniform. Filipino women journalists believe that promoting gender equality and awareness in the newsroom should be the top preventive measure, while developing emergency response programs should be the top corrective measure,” according to the summary of the study authored by ACFJ executive director Luz Rimban and co-researcher Dr. Christine Cox of ADMU’s Department of Communication.

The objective of the study was to present a profile of Filipino women journalists through socio demographic information; describe the challenges and dangers they face in the course of daily work, inside and outside the newsroom and determine support systems and mechanisms (or lack of them) available to women journalists to protect them from the hazards of the profession.

“Half of the respondents reported the experiences that they have had took a toll on their mental health, and feeling physically and emotionally tired but felt the need to tread on because of the importance of their job,” the study also said.

What to do then?

Respondents suggest corrective actions such as emergency response programs, immediate legal support, etc.

This is an important project and I thank my fellow women journalists for sharing their stories. Most of all, credit goes to Maam Luz, my ACFJ professor and the center’s indefatigable executive director for making this happen.

I am very proud of this project because it somehow started from an idea I had during the time of ex-president Rody Duterte.

I approached Maam Luz then and suggested that with all the Duterte-era misogyny, it might be good to have a record of  the experiences of women journalists and put it in a book.

But what Maam Luz did was bigger and better. She formed the We-Move or the Welfare and Safety of Women Journalists as she stressed the need for a baseline study to support the group’s advocacy of helping protect women journalists.

The result is a beautiful space, a sisterhood of women helping women and a movement that strives to create a better workplace for journalists.

It’s only the beginning and women journalists like me are grateful to ADMU, ACJF and the International Media Support for making this happen.

Hopefully, as women journalists come together, we will see an end to the different forms of workplace problems. After all, we no longer live in the Dark Ages and supposedly, harassment, misogyny and prejudice have no place in this day and age.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.