More than 60 journalists and media practitioners across Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned derogatory and sexist statements issued by Dr Omer Adil against female journalist and anchorperson Gharidah Farooqi and demanded 'full accountability' beyond a public apology.
The journalists and media practitioners, who had gathered under the banner of the Network of Women Journalists for Digital Rights (NWJDR), issued a statement on Thursday and said that Dr Adil's recent derogatory and sexist statements against Gharidah Farooqi and other women working in the media in an online programme by former anchorperson and vlogger Zohaib Saleem Butt was condemnable.
"The online vlog has been extremely triggering with the use of graphic language against women journalists in the country," NWJDR stated.
"The use of these sexist and abusive words for women working in the media have been repeatedly used by male journalists and colleagues in the past too," NWJDR said, adding that female journalists and anchors have been a target of abuse, hate speech, threats and defamation.
"Time and again, women journalists have raised their concerns with relevant authorities and demanded justice; however, no punitive action is taken to provide them with protection."
It is pertinent to mention that the World Press Freedom Index already ranks Pakistan at 152 out of 180 countries for press freedom on the back of repeated, orchestrated and sophisticated attacks against women journalists with gendered disinformation, hateful slurs, and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in the country. Digital Rights Foundation's Cyber Harassment Helpline Report 2023 found that the helpline had been receiving repeated complaints from journalists based on the attacks they face online, with 35 journalists lodging complaints in 2023.
Comments such as those issued by Dr Adil increase the chances of violence in offline spaces for women working in the media and can have a lasting impact on their mental health.
"Women journalists already lack institutional support from families and workplaces, and with comments like these made by senior journalists, it only reinforces negative stereotypical personas of women working in the media and also directly poses threats to their economic livelihoods," the statement added.
NWJDR demanded full accountability from Dr Omer Adil for maligning female journalists in the video.
"A public apology is insufficient to address the profound damage inflicted on the reputation of all women journalists," it said while further asserting that "the apology from video host Zohaib Saleem Butt is grossly inadequate and fails to mitigate the harm caused by the misogynistic statements made in the video."
We call on relevant government bodies, journalist protection organisations, and regional and national press clubs to unequivocally condemn the use of such language against women in the media. They must actively discourage its perpetuation through online content and vlogs and take punitive action against those disseminating this harmful content.