Female Journalists In El Salvador Detail Heightened Abuse Under The Bukele Administration

Women journalists say they are increasingly facing gender-based harassment, trolling, and digital violence from the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, which critics say has driven dozens of journalists into exile.

Over the past five years, El Salvador has dropped 61 places in the Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) press freedom index, now ranking 112th out of 180 countries. Journalists at prominent newspaper El Faro have reportedly faced arrest for investigating Bukele's former ties with violent gangs, while media organizations who receive funding from abroad must now register themselves as "foreign agents" and pay a 30% tax.

While both male and female journalists have been affected by the uptick in government repression, female journalists say they are increasingly facing misogynistic abuse online, often perpetrated by pro-Bukele accounts.

One journalist, currently in a self-imposed exile abroad, told Latin Times that independent media is "constantly under attack" in the country.

Although the reporter- who has chosen to remain anonymous due to safety concerns- acknowledged that increased attacks under the Bukele administration have not been limited to women journalists, she stressed that she and and her female colleagues have endured "non-stop" digital harassment over the past five years, much of it featuring "misogynistic" or "sexually charged" content.

The journalist recalled that most of the social media accounts perpetrating the abuse are openly pro-Bukele, often sharing "propaganda in favor of Bukele" or content "which defends Bukele's policies."

While she confirmed that she has no evidence to conclude that the government is paying the pro-Bukele profiles to troll journalists, she stated: "What I can say is that these [account holders] are figures close to the government, to the president."

The journalist explained that the online abuse endured by women journalists often includes insults about their physical appearance, attacks on their family members, and doubts about their professional capabilities.

"Extremely serious" cases, she explained, include rape threats.

She went on to explain that women journalists often endure attacks "which relate to women's abilities, our intelligence," with some social media users accusing their victims of leveraging their sexuality to further their careers.

Women journalists, she explained, face a "rather adverse environment," given that many women "have other responsibilities" such as being mothers. "Carrying all of that isn't easy," she added.

While this journalist has "always faced attacks" throughout her career- which has spanned different administrations- she emphasized that "under Bukele's administration, repression against the press has increased significantly."

"In my case, I've received not only attacks, but also [been the subject of] videos on YouTube by YouTubers linked to the government, slandering me, saying things about me, making things up about me," she continued.

She claims that Bukele's government is carrying out a "systematic and targeted attack on the independent press."

Suchit Chávez, who is on the board for El Salvador's Press Association (APES), also told Latin Times that, while harassment against journalists is not a new phenomenon in El Salvador, it has in recent years "escalated into more direct intimidation," with both male and female journalists being targeted by police in their homes.

Under Bukele's administration, journalists increasingly face online trolls who appear "almost in a coordinated manner to try to delegitimize their work [and] insult them," Chávez explained.

The reporter echoed the first journalist's sentiment, saying that the digital violence faced by women journalists is specifically gendered in nature, with women facing abuse of a "sexist, sexualizing, misogynistic character," sometimes generated by bots.

Chávez described the digital violence faced by women journalists as having "a "nuance that is of a very sexist character."

A third journalist, who also opted to preserve her anonymity for safety reasons, highlighted the difference in the types of abuse directed at men and women journalists.

She explained that women reporters face threats of sexual assaults, attacks on their motherhood, and insults about their sexuality; a type of violence less commonly experienced among their male counterparts.

They are also subject to heavily gendered insults, such as "prostitute," "whore," and "bitch," the journalist explained.

She said it is "really harsh" to hear these insults, "and even harsher [...] to hear them on a daily basis, or receive them constantly." The journalist also noted that many of the accounts which carry out such attacks are "evidently linked" to Bukele's government in some capacity.

She added that "troll centers" have played a key role in perpetrating "aggressions against women," as well as "misogyny [and] machismo".

In November 2022, Reuters collected testimonies from three former government employees who said they were tasked with creating fake Twitter accounts to praise Bukele and to discredit his opponents, indicating the likely existence of troll centers.

The former employees recall insulting those who expressed anti-Bukele views, reporting their accounts to Twitter so that they would get shut down, and creating fake Twitter followers for Bukele's account.

One of the former employees, a communications expert, told the news agency: "I didn't know it when I signed the contract, but I made a pact with the devil. I became a pro-Bukele troll."

All three ex-staff members said that their work was overseen by government officials, including government ministers, and was sometimes conducted in government buildings.

Artur Romeu, the Latin America director for RSF, told Latin Times that Bukele's "public strategy" is to "delegitimize, criminalize, stigmatize the press by convincing people that they are an enemy, and that the press and journalists are working against the people."

He stated that aggression against Salvadoran journalists must be perceived "more like a broader machine" which has "lots of different cogs," rather than a series of isolated incidents.

"Bukele has created a propaganda apparatus that works with violence, online violence, and stigmatization," Romeu added.

The director also explained that, while misogynistic aggression against women journalists is not a "specificity" that is unique to El Salvador, those in the country who write about gender-based issues such as reproductive rights are more susceptible to attacks and to having their private life scrutinized in the public arena.

"It's very difficult work when, as a journalist, as a reporter, you are being exposed all the time; not just [in terms of] what you're writing, but who you are," Romeu said, adding: "[There is] no doubt that women in this particular context are deeply affected and have to question their ability to continue doing their work."