INSIGHT | INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2026

IWD: For women journalists “The abuse is normalised”

6 March 2026

For International Women’s Day, journalist and Director of MediaStrong, Leona O’Neill, reflects on her experience in the profession and the challenges women face on the job.

Seven years ago, after I witnessed the murder of a journalistic colleague who was shot dead at a riot, I was hounded mercilessly by malicious elements online. It was as if I – having been thrust into this horrific worldwide story – had become public property to be discussed in comments and torn apart in forums.

The incident was picked up by conspiracy theorists who decided that their next pay cheque was reliant solely on branding me a liar, a member of the illuminati, someone who was hiding the victim or an actor in a false flag operation. There were endless online pile-ons, YouTube videos made by “citizen journalists”, blogs written, forums discussing my character, appearance, integrity, credibility, intelligence, morals, my right to exist in this world. A man set up an online charity page to raise money to buy weapons to attack my house – shockingly his efforts raised £234. Strangers – mostly angry men it has to be said – spewed vitriol and hatred towards me. It was vicious, misogynistic, relentless and had an enormous impact on my mental wellbeing. It spilled into every area of my real life.

That was just one incident.

Every time I post a story or a column, a lot of the comments underneath are straight from the seventh circle on online Hell. I’ve had death, physical harm and rape threats. A man told me he felt sorry for my children because I was their mother. I’ve had comments about my deceased parents. Another man told me he hoped I’d die slowly and painfully from disease. For writing a story. For being a woman. Those who say “don’t let it bother you” have never had to survive online as a female journalist.

The job of a women journalist is challenging enough, this new dimension of grimness – designed to humiliate and silence women in public life – is just another frontier we have to navigate.

Women journalists are dehumanised online every day. The abuse is normalised. And what is worse, most women journalists come to expect it as part of their work.

I know women colleagues who have also been given death and rape threats online, been deepfaked, doxed, endured malicious rumour campaigns, had their personal details shared, been body shamed, their competence questioned, told they are ugly, stupid, biased, unqualified. Some have had fake online dating profiles set up on platforms and had their families targeted – all for the simple act of doing their jobs.

The job of a women journalist is challenging enough, this new dimension of grimness – designed to humiliate and silence women in public life – is just another frontier we have to navigate.

The result is we change our routines, stay silent, or remove ourselves from public-facing platforms altogether, because the battle to just survive in that arena is exhausting.

Many news organisations require their journalists to promote their stories online, to wade into the cesspit professionally and shine a light on their work, yet support systems for when they return virtually bloodied and bruised from the wrangle are not uniformly strong.

The result is chilling for those who value journalism. Women pull back from social media, from investigative work, from certain work that they know will bring the trolls. Some leave journalism altogether. As UNESCO notes, online violence has become “a major barrier to women’s participation in journalism, public debate, and democratic life”.

When women’s voices are silenced and pushed out of public converse, democracy is weakened. Social media platforms need to do more. As do newsrooms. A profession that already grapples with gender equality can’t afford to keep losing women because the burden of participating is too heavy to carry.