Women Journalists in and from North Africa

Around the world, journalists are at risk for the work that they do. This is particularly the case for women journalists who often experience compounded harm—they are targeted for being members of the press, but also for their gender. In North Africa, women journalists are increasingly coming under attack by state and non-state actors. They are undergoing prosecutions and arrest, are subject to doxing and defamation, and are being surveilled online and offline. Yet, even in the face of such extensive harm, women journalists face serious obstacles in being able to document and report on these violations and to seek recourse for them domestically and extraterritorially.

Women Journalists in and from North Africa, a project by the legal unit of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), is dedicated to cultivating a community of women journalists in the region and in exile that is activated to document violations experienced in the course of journalists’ work, including their gendered nature, and to seek recourse for these violations while leveraging international, regional, and foreign mechanisms. In doing so, TIMEP carves out a space for this community to build action-centric bridges of solidarity and to facilitate collaborations with lawyers and civil society organizations in the pursuit and activation of legal pathways. 

As part of this project, TIMEP releases the following materials:

• A report documenting the key challenges, risks, and threats experienced by women journalists in North Africa and the legal pathways available to them, titled The Realities and Recourse for Women Journalists in and from North Africa (English | Arabic)
• A practical toolkit that lays out the key questions for women journalists to consider when assessing potential pathways for legal recourse (English | Arabic)
• A legal submission made to the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression highlighting the experience of women journalists from North Africa in exile in order to advance protections for this vulnerable community (English | Arabic).