"The online harassment of journalists is a phenomenon which has been on the rise in Europe over the last decade and it affects journalists' working lives. As an expression of mob censorship, online harassment raises questions about how media organisations react to online aggressions targeting their ... journalists, the consequences on the victims’ well-being and on the role of journalism in society. Yet, previous research has shown the lack of support mechanisms provided by journalists’ employers. In this article, we explore the hypothesis that the lack of organisational support towards targeted journalists is partly due to the challenges faced by media managers when trying to make sense of the phenomenon. This article offers a unique viewpoint on how 22 Belgian media managers from five media organisations struggle to define what online harassment is and how to respond to it. In turn, it shows that the vague understanding of what online harassment is seems to favour case-by-case organisational responses. Missing words and unstructured actions related to online harassment impede media managers from addressing online harassment as a collective issue in journalism and its consequences on the democratic debate." (Abstract) more

"Violence against journalists is nothing new. It has been around in various iterations for decades: harsh criticism of the profession, media headquarters ransacked and destroyed, journalists considered bargaining chips or a means to apply pressure during periods of conflict, or during political, eco ... nomic and underworld turmoil. War correspondents are the most mediatized victims (Tumber, 2006), but this should not overshadow the violence local journalists experience in conflict zones (Palmer, 2019), or while investigating organized crime, drug trafficking or criminal economic and political activities. This violence against journalists by citizens and institutions is recorded, cataloged and denounced." (Abstract) more