Economics is not usually seen as a particularly dangerous beat to cover. But for Salvadoran journalist Mariana Belloso, it made her a target of direct attacks when President Nayib Bukele assumed office in 2019.
The attacks, which other women journalists also experienced, carried misogynistic and sexually violent undertones. In fact, after months of investigating these incidents and other attacks on the press in El Salvador, the Legislative Assembly in 2020 issued a report saying freedom of expression and freedom of the press were being violated in the country.
Despite the report, the situation did not change. Between 2020 and 2022, Belloso, along with other women journalists, faced a digital harassment campaign led by the hashtag #malqueridas, a term in Spanish loaded with misogynistic and sexual content. The hashtag was often accompanied by doctored images and even rape threats.
“For me, it is extremely important to report online violence because it leads to other types of violence. In my case, my sources became afraid. They did not want to talk to me,” said Belloso, who is now living in exile in the United States, in an interview with LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). “Journalists only have two things: our name, which is our credibility, and our sources. If they attack your credibility and your sources, they are taking away the tools you need to do your job well. And that is what was happening to me.”
Gender-based violence is a recurring pattern among women journalists who are forced into exile, according to the report La Mochila Invisible (“The Invisible Backpack” in Spanish), produced under the Space for Freedom project by the media development organization DW Akademie. For the report, published in June, 13 exiled women journalists from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua were interviewed anonymously. LJR did not interview them for this article.
“There’s a feeling of isolation after the rupture caused by exile,” journalist and report co-author Édgar López told LJR. “It is not just a rupture in their professional environment. For these women, their identity as journalists is shattered.”
This erasure of identity does not happen because of their work, but because they are women: Their physical appearance, marital status, or whether they have children is judged, López said.
Belloso pointed to what makes the attacks against women journalists different.
“It is very, very, very rare to see a male journalist threatened with rape online. But that is one of the most common things said to us. Or we’re told to go back home, find a husband, or take care of our children,” Belloso said. “They disqualify you as a person, as a human being, and that has consequences for your professional life.”
Belloso said she decided to go into exile because of the attacks affecting her daughters, obstacles to doing her job, and after being notified her phone had been infected with the Pegasus spyware.
Because these attacks take place in digital spaces, women journalists often continue to experience them even after they have left their countries—or even after they have stopped working as journalists.
According to López, these attacks extend the feeling among women journalists that they are not safe anywhere and continue to block professional opportunities.
“Journalism today requires digital space to have reach, for their work to be seen,” López said. “These women are losing the natural space in the digital age to be journalists.”
“Online attacks are not a game, they are not something minor, they are things that ruin lives,” said Belloso. “They are pushing talented journalists out of the profession, and they are hurting our societies because voices are being silenced.”
This, however, is not the only type of gender-based violence that women journalists face while in exile.
Although Marianela, who asked to be identified with a pseudonym for fear of retaliation even in exile, managed to find an opportunity with a Nicaraguan news outlet from abroad, but her professional life and routines have changed completely. Exiled for more than a year due to the Ortega-Murillo regime’s persecution of independent press in Nicaragua, she has had to face this violence.
She has experienced it when applying for professional opportunities as well as during bureaucratic processes involved in exile. Because her husband is also a journalist, she has often been told not to apply for projects or journalism fellowships herself, but instead to have her husband apply as the head of the household. Even during the interview to receive asylum, she recalled, her husband was asked about their experiences while she was asked only to sign his statement.
“I feel like I am being made invisible,” Marianela told LJR.
Marianela said she is constantly questioned about her ability to make payments, such as for social security, or why she appears well-groomed if she is a refugee.
“Even personal care becomes a target of violence in exile because society expects a face of misfortune. They do not want to see or believe that a woman in exile can move forward or get ahead—they think she should look like she is in a bad situation,” she said.
Adding to this, women journalists often migrate with their families, including children, parents, or other relatives, which increases the demands for sustainability in the country where they have sought refuge.
According to the La Mochila Invisible report, due to this lack of opportunity or being paid less than male journalists, women journalists in exile are often forced to take on traditional gender roles, such as doing domestic work or caring for others.
“We can find very, very qualified journalists assuming these roles,” López said.
Although Marianela has managed to continue working as a journalist, she said that in many cases her domestic workload outweighs her professional work. The conditions of exile, she said, have not allowed her to get additional help, such as a caregiver for her children.
“Work ends up being sidelined by new domestic responsibilities in exile,” Marianela said.
The La Mochila Invisible report not only outlines the challenges faced by women journalists in exile, but also offers a series of recommendations to respond to these challenges with a gender perspective.
Marianela, for example, suggests programs focused on motherhood as well as empowerment and growth opportunities for women journalists.
To achieve gender-conscious solutions, López said, many of those solutions must come from the women themselves. For example, through exercises in solidarity.
“Solidarity is not something you declare, it’s something you weave together,” López said. “It’s like gathering a group of women knitters to create a quilt, recognizing one another as part of a collective, moving forward together so that no one is left behind.”
Belloso agrees on the need for a differentiated approach but especially calls on journalism funders to take the phenomenon of exile into account.
“It is essential that those who are trying to invest resources to support journalism realize they need to support journalism in exile. Otherwise, criminal powers and political powers are winning by forcing these journalists out,” Belloso said. “So if we do not support these people to keep doing journalism, then those powers have already won.”
