Brazil: RSF takes legal action over cyberharassment of journalists covering LGBTQIA+ rights and gender issues

Internationally, 60% of journalists have already reported experiencing online harassment targeting those who cover women's rights and gender issues, according to a 2024 RSF study. An RSF-supported survey published last May by the news website AzMina found that journalists covering gender-based violence in Brazil are increasingly subjected to digital attacks: 46% of the women journalists surveyed said they had received threats and attempts to silence them;31% had experienced coordinated attacks on social media. Cases of doxxing - the disclosure of personal data and internet browsing habits - were also reported.

In its brief; filed on 19 August 2026 as an amicus curiae - a statement presenting additional relevant arguments to the court by an entity that is not a party to the case- RSF shows how online violence has reduced the diversity of voices,created a hostile environment, and even led journalists to self-censor.

For 92% of women journalists who experienced violence, according to the AzMina study supported by RSF it was a deliberate attempt to obstruct their journalistic work. 62% believed the violence was intended to prevent justice from being served for the victims whose stories they covered - of whom there are many: in 2025, at least 1,470 women were victims of femicide and more than 87,000 were raped in Brazil. This cyberharassment commonly comes from the attackers of the victims whose stories journalists are covering, but also from their relatives or supporters, generating fear and leading some women journalists to leave the profession.

Journalists at the news website AzMina, as well as its editor-in-chief, Helena Bertho, were themselves targeted on social media in 2019 after publishing information on safe abortion from the World Health Organization (WHO). They were accused of "crimes" by Damares Alves, then Minister for Women, Family and Human Rights and now a senator. Government supporters shared the article in hundreds of social media posts, including to Jair Bolsonaro, then president, other ministers, the Federal Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office, all in an effort to encourage the criminalisation of AzMina's publication.

The following year, in 2020, investigative journalist Schirlei Alves's work led to the adoption of legislation protecting victims after she revealed images of a rape trial on the site Intercept Brasil. During the hearing, the victim Mariana Ferrer, was subjected to a series of humiliations while the presiding judge failed to intervene. The treatment of the victim, made public by the journalist, led to the adoption of a law providing sanctionsfor acts that violate the dignity of victims of sexual violence and witnesses during trials. Three years later, however, Alves was sentenced to one year in prison and fined €80,000 for moral damages in a defamation case linked to the report. The journalist is currently appealing the convictions. Throughout this period, she was subjected to hundreds of attacks on social media, to the point that her Instagram account was removed. Yet no platform removed the violent messages targeting the journalist.

In 2021, the team at the news site Portal Catarinas, which specialises in gender issues and reproductive rights, was also subjected to massive attacks and attempts at criminalisation after reporting on illegal obstacles to access legal abortion for girls who were victims of sexual violence. In addition to abusive messages on social media, the website was taken offline by millions of coordinated connections originating from different countries.

Read also:

• International Women's Day: 60% of journalists report cyberharassment against those who cover women's rights

• Voices heard but repressed: RSF's new report "Journalism in The #MeTooEra" calls for increased support for journalists covering gender violence and women's rights RSF analysis of 100 deepfakes shows mounting threat to journalists - especially women