On the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day 2017, it has been discovered that Journalists in Nigeria often suffer harassments of different sorts but mostly political, a report has said.
The report noted that Social media offers journalists new ways to engage with their audiences, but also opens up new avenues for harassment, including trolling, threats and sexual harassment.
This is as a result of a survey on African journalists’ use of social media.Initial results of the survey carried out by frayintermedia, released for 2017 World Media Freedom Day, indicated that almost half of African journalists had been harassed on social media.
Frayintermedia conducted the online survey on African journalists’ experiences of social media and recorded 307 responses from journalists across 36 countries. The study found that journalists from almost all countries regularly engaged on social media platforms, and 95% did so for professional purposes.
The overwhelming majority (89%) of journalists were required to be on social media as part of their job. Two-thirds who used social media had both personal and professional accounts, but many of these used a corporate account.
