Hate campaign against three Lebanese female journalists on social media

Three Lebanese female journalists were subject to an intense hate campaign. Dima Sadek from news outlet Daraj has been subject to intermittent threats and several libel suits following her coverage of potential government corruption. Luna Safwan has been the target of online harassment after posting a tweet critical of Hezbollah and was condemned for ‘justifying the Israeli narrative’ about the party. Finally, investigative reporter Mahassen Moursel was targeted by a wave of social media hatred after false reports on Twitter that she has been arrested for co-operating with Israel. In response, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced the harassment, defamation, and threats to the three journalists on social media and called on the authorities to provide them with protection. ‘These women have been subjected to an unjustified wave of hostility because they are independent and refuse to follow the editorial line of the media of the community to which they are supposed to belong. Being women is an additional difficulty that exposes them to all sorts of sexist insults of varying intensity,’ explained, head of RSF’s Middle East desk Sabrina Bennoui.