Feminists in Revolt

Edition REMP

From June 12 to 14, the Catalan Feminist Days were held, which, on this occasion, bore the name of “Feminists in Revolt” and commemorated the 50th anniversary of the “First Catalan Women’s Days”, held in 1976 at the Paraninfo of the University of Barcelona, and attended by more than 4000 women eager to recover the freedoms that the Franco dictatorship had snatched from them for almost 40 years.

As usual, and organised by the Xarxa Feminista and Ca la Dona, on this occasion the conferences had the participation of more than 2500 women, lesbians and trans, and a wide program with more than 140 debates, workshops, exhibitions, representations and other cultural activities.

Among the many debates that took place, we want to dwell on the one carried out by several organisations of journalists and communicators who, under the name of “Journalists in Revolt”, wanted to value the work carried out by the different groups of women journalists, from the most local to the global space, claiming the networks and alliances necessary to continue moving forward.

Alícia Oliver, coordinator of the European Network of Women Journalists, who began her speech with a recognition of communication and journalism professionals, throughout history, “and those who were present, 50 years ago, at the Catalan Women’s Days, especially Montserrat Minobis, who was the first president of two of the entities that convene this event today.”

In her speech she presented the results of an investigation on digital violence against women journalists and communicators in Catalonia and in which it was shown that 73% of the journalists surveyed had experienced some form of online harassment. Likewise, it pointed out the serious impact on the health of women and the self-censorship practised by many of those affected, an aspect “that threatens freedom of expression and democracy.”

Rejane Modesto, Secretary of Equality of the Union of Journalists of Catalonia, said that journalism, worldwide, faces a series of obstacles that put professionals in the sector to the test. “The murder of journalists has reached unthinkable levels in recent years, especially caused by the different wars or by the genocide in Gaza.”

He also talked about the precarious labour situation of the profession; the need for fairer working hours or existing low wages, which range from “25,000 to 30,000 euros gross per year.”

Cristina Pulido, of the Feminist Journalism Association, editor of Diario Feminista, presented an investigation on the treatment of sexist violence, since there is a lack of knowledge about the different types of sexist violence included in Catalan law 17/2020, of December 22, amending Law 5/2008, on the right of women to eradicate sexist violence, “which generates that the different types of sexist violence are not properly contextualised or even invisible.”

She added that “examples of news where victims, survivors or people who support them are re-victimised, being defamation, a known use.” And she also pointed out the need to improve the rectification mechanisms “to prevent any revictimisation from the media, and in the event that there was, rectify effectively and quickly.”

Fabiola Llanos, president of the International Network of Women Journalists and Communicators of Catalonia (Xidpic.cat), editor of La Independent, spoke about networking and labour dignity in the face of precariousness, demanding that public administrations funding and dignified recognition, making it clear that “media and / or feminist collectives such as La Independent are not a marginal sect, but an essential public service for democracy.”

She named one by one, all the journalists and communicators who have participated in the project “to continue exercising the historical justice of naming ourselves, making each other visible, transforming the profession into a space of political complicity, affection and living genealogy.” And she bet on quality journalism as a containment dam against digital fascism, which responds with rigour, denunciation and counter-hegemonic content to cut the way to the extreme right. “Feminist investigative journalism is more indispensable than ever.”

Edith Herrera, a Mexican journalist residing for a few months in Barcelona thanks to the municipal program “Barcelona protects journalists from Mexico,” explained the current context of territorial wars in which journalists develop when practising the profession. “We are exposed to being threatened, tortured, disappeared or murdered. The worrying thing is that the government perpetuates this violence by omitting the complaints of the victims. And by not taking responsibility for guaranteeing the security and the right to life and freedom of expression of all journalists.”

And she insisted that they could not remain silent and that “percising feminist journalism, at this time, is crucial to break the information fence imposed in Mexico, to deny and hide the human rights crisis situation we live in.”

Arlen Centeno, a Nicaraguan journalist also welcomed in Barcelona by the Human Rights Defenders Protection Program, an initiative promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya and managed by the Catalan Commission for Action for Refuge (CCAR), said that Nicaraguan feminists were the first to denounce that a dictatorship was being established in Nicaragua since Ortega’s return to power in 2007. “An authoritarian and repressive power that was unmasked before the world in 2018, where they took the lives of more than 300 people; they forced almost a million people out of a population of 7 million to seek refuge in other countries; it closed more than 5000 civil society organisations of which Spanish and Catalan cooperants were part, and has left almost the entire national territory without an independent press.”

She explained that they have already had a permanent state of emergency for 8 years and that in these times of crisis and chaos in all areas of life “feminists persist from all fronts challenging exclusive narratives that seek to erase us from the social narrative and become passive victims.”

Finally, Karima Shujazada, an Afghan journalist living in Barcelona since the Taliban came to power in 2021, explained that the situation of women journalists in Afghanistan cannot be understood without knowing the situation of all Afghan women, since what they live are not isolated restrictions, but a system of total exclusion: a gender apartheid that must be made visible, documented and denounced by the international journalistic community.

And she added that “the Afghan women journalists do not need compassion, but networks of support, protection and spaces to continue reporting. International solidarity must be translated into concrete actions that ensure that their voices are not silenced.”