For years, as Kiran Nazish worked as a journalist in conflict zones around the world, she watched the female reporters around her struggling against the odds to build their careers, get support and stay safe.
In Mexico, female journalists told Nazish that they had been blackmailed by their bosses to cooperate sexually or face demotion. While working on the frontline in conflict zones Nazish was asked by male colleagues: “Why are you here? Go back to Pakistan.”
When Nazish collapsed and was hospitalised after covering the rise of Islamic State in Iraq in 2015, she knew she had to do something about it.
“I realised that I had had a great career, with support, and if I was there on my deathbed, what was it like for women who did not have the same opportunities?” she says.
So in 2017, after she had recovered, Nazish launched a mentorship scheme for female journalists and the Coalition for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ) was born.
The CFWIJ, the first global female-led mentorship programme to support mid-career women in journalism around the world, was a success. It partnered hundreds of young reporters from various countries with some of the most experienced and celebrated women in journalism and broadcasting.
Yet as the work progressed, Nazish and her colleagues began to see how many of those they were mentoring were experiencing increasing repression and attacks, from harassment and smear campaigns to imprisonment and deportation.
“Women were being targeted and detained, but nobody was documenting it,” Nazish says.
So the coalition pivoted, launching the Press Freedom Initiative, now called Women Press Freedom, to record “every single attack, threat, or violation of press freedom” faced by female or LGBTQ journalists.
Since it started recording the data, Nazish says the number of press freedom violations against female journalists has continued to rise. In the past couple of years, she says it has reached a crisis point. Last year, a survey of female journalists found that 75% had experienced a threat to their safety, while 25% said they had experienced sexual violence or harassment connected to their work.
“Every day we record around five new names, five new journalists who are being imprisoned or targeted,” she says. “The detention of women journalists has increased enormously; Slapp cases – basically bogus lawsuits to silence journalists – are increasing enormously; transnational repression is increasing enormously,” she says.
Attacks often occur at state level in countries where women are seen as “easy targets”, such as Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Hungary, Nazish says, but also from groups such as drug cartels and the far right.
In July, the CFWIJ documented 83 violations, including the disappearance of Fabiola Tercero in Nicaragua after a police raid on her home, and the sentencing to death of Pakhshan Azizi by Iran. Many cases are not publicised, remaining confidential to protect those at risk. The CFWIJ says that, as of 30 July, there are 89 female journalists behind bars, 17 of whom were jailed in 2024.
In addition to its reporting, the CFWIJ now also arranges emergency help for those in danger, such as relocating journalists to other countries, finding safe houses and providing legal support. It has provided crisis support to more than 1,000 journalists and advocated for more than 3,000.
Last year, the coalition also helped a Belarusian journalist flee her country after she was imprisoned three times by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. “She had to escape in the middle of the night. She had a son and an ailing mother, they both had to be left behind,” Nazish says. “But we thought she could be taken again, we had to get her out.”
In January, it also advocated for journalist Brandi Morin, who was detained by Canadian police when documenting a raid on an indigenous homeless camp.
The reporter was detained for five hours and charged with obstruction – charges which were not dropped for almost two months. The CFWIJ helped Morin by organising advocacy campaigns and applying pressure on officials. “It was a dark experience. Being detained and charged takes your power completely away. After my release, I fell into depression, questioning whether I wanted to do this work,” Morin says. “But the coalition had my back.”
The work the coalition is doing has also led to Nazish and her colleagues becoming targets.
“I have been threatened – I get so many threats. Sometimes it can be really alarming,” Nazish says. “We spend the whole day tackling violence – human psychology is impacted, sometimes that can take a toll.”
But the coalition is continuing its fight. In recent weeks, it has had cause to celebrate, with the release of the journalist Alsu Kurmasheva in the US-Russia prisoner exchange. “We were working on this for a long time. We went to the White House, we did a lot of back-end advocacy work,” says Nazish.
Its next goal is to expand its work started during the Afghanistan evacuation in securing pre-agreed visas from governments for those whose lives have been threatened. “Women journalists are putting their lives on the line every day to report important stories,” Nazish says. “We want to be able to have safer places for these women to live, where they can continue their work with dignity and freedom.”
