In Germany, online harassment in the sense of hate speech or badgering of journalists is increasing rapidly. A recent survey among 322 journalists of the University of Bielefeld and the special service Mediendienst Integration revealed that over 60 per cent of the respondents had been harassed online during the last 12 months, and that social media confrontations had become part of their daily routine (Pappendieck et al., 2020). Compared to 2017, figures rose by 20 per cent, and the researchers observed a radicalisation of assaults, mainly from the extreme right (Preuß et al., 2017). 16 per cent of journalists reported offences or even death threats, and also physical assaults, while doing their work. Women are a particular focus of online hate, as a female editor-in-chief indicates:
You have hundreds of comments on some topics within minutes. And that is when you write as a woman, and even more so when you have an immigrant background […] that is really ugly. There is practically no topic that I can write about […] where you don’t get sexist comments, no matter what you write about. […] and here we have to protect our colleagues.
Claudia Neuhaus, a well-known football reporter in the public service television provider ZDF, experienced a sexist social media storm just because she presented the football world cup for men in 2018 (Bau, 2018). For ZDF-presenter Dunja Hayali, Twitter hate speech has become part of her daily life. Hayali is a member of various minority groups and speaks out against hate, making her an obvious target for right-wing extremists. She gets support from ZDF’s legal department and personally copes by intimidating assaulters, and sometimes visiting them at home with a camera team to talk about their offence and her feelings about it. “We have become more aware of the problems, we are also working with the police […]. However, I have to say that I am shaken by the low clarification rate by the police”, observed her colleague.
WDR investigative journalist Georg Restle received a death threat via mail, which, according to the police, was linked to the murderer of a politician by the extreme right (Huber, 2019). Also, journalists belonging to a minority group are constantly under threat:
Our moderator […] is black and […] he is latently exposed to [harassment]. After this […] broadcast he was affected by massive online harassment and also here […] on the street. He is a freelancer, but of course, we protect him. […] The legal department says it can cost 3,000 or maybe 50,000 euros. But we protect him, no matter what.
In the face of these alarming developments, the respondents also report a high amount of online harassment and hate speech against staff, with women being particular targets of sexist hate. Not all media organisations have special units to support journalists, though Der Spiegel and Stern make efforts to establish internal units or ombudspersons. Respondents point out that the organisations provide psychological and legal aid if the case can be clearly associated with work. However, no relevant provisions in work contracts are in place, and there seems to be a grey zone of assaults between private and work life where the companies may be reluctant to help. Additionally, the detection rate of law-enforcement agencies is also very low.
