(Ottawa) ‘I’ve had enough’: Cornered on social media, a journalist recently sounded the alarm, exhausted by the mounting hatred and threats made against her and other reporters.
Global News reporter Rachel Gilmore called on Twitter and TikTok for police and Ottawa to take the harassment that peaked during the year seriously, saying one of the pillars of Canadian democracy is in hazard.
“The independent press is under threat,” she warns. “We will not be silenced. But we need you to stand up for us. »
Earlier this month, 52 Canadian newspapers, broadcasters and media in an open letter urged political leaders to act, hammering that “hate and threats against journalists have a chilling effect that undermines democracy” and denounced “any attempt to weaken” the press.
Live broadcasts interrupted due to boos, obscene messages online, threats… journalists speak of it as a real assault, which takes the profession by the throat.
Some say they are afraid to leave their homes, others say they have been forced to take extraordinary security measures.
“It’s incessant”, laments Erica Ifill, columnist at the newspaper The Hill Times in Ottawa. “It ranges from death threats to rape threats, to people letting us know they are watching us. »
“I think maybe I should quit journalism,” she says.
The Canadian Association of Journalists believes that the attacks “threaten not only the safety and well-being of journalists, but also the proper functioning of democracy itself”.
“Online harassment is a scourge on our democracy and it must stop”, denounced the association, stressing that these “despicable abuses” are most often directed against women, LGBTQ + people and journalists with an immigrant background. .
For Saba Eitizaz ofToronto Starthe situation got so bad — she is quoted in dozens of hate messages a day — that she had to take sick leave.
“It is certainly much worse and much more insidious than a kind of general disenchantment of the public with the media”, she regrets to AFP.
“Chilling Effect”
Rachel Gilmore and many others have been insulted on social media. “I’m gonna kill you bitch, you better watch your back when you’re in public,” one message read.
According to Saba Eitizaz, it all started at the end of 2021, when a far-right politician called on his supporters to “combat journalists”. Then the situation worsened with the “Freedom Convoy”, in a context of distrust of the traditional media.
“Now I constantly dread opening my private messages,” she says.
Originally from Pakistan, this journalist explains that she fled to Canada after being targeted by a “similar malicious online campaign” launched after her reporting on human rights. “I came here for my safety,” she explains.
Erica Ifill and others attribute the rise in hate to a multitude of factors: political polarization, economic insecurity, and a pandemic that has forced people into self-isolation, “sitting at home in front of their computers, scared and angry “.
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino reacted on Twitter: “The abuse Rachel and other journalists have suffered […] are odious and unacceptable”.
The authorities are reluctant to charge the perpetrators of these acts, several journalists told AFP.
“They don’t see these people as a threat,” explained Erica Ifill.
Contacted, the Ottawa police did not wish to indicate whether investigations had been opened after complaints from journalists, but agent Mike Cudrasov specified that “allegations of threats are taken seriously. »
Ottawa is also due to unveil an “online safety law” in 2023 that has raised hopes among some to curb bad behavior. Senior officials told AFP that it is the platforms that will moderate the content.