A researcher must not be left alone in a harassment situation
Harassment and coercion threaten the work of researchers and other experts. To ensure their freedom of expression, coordinated cooperation from the research community is required, both domestically and internationally.
Text Anssi Bwalya image getty images
englisg translation Marko saajanaho
Researchers’ freedom of expression is essential to science and research with a social impact. Information gained through research can only impact society if it can be freely talked about in public. This May, a project by the Committee for Public Information (TJNK) published national recommendations for safeguarding the freedom of speech of researchers and experts. The goal is to protect researchers and those serving in expertise tasks from harassment and coercion. These recommendations are based on last year’s hearings with researchers and university administration.
In Finland, the most common phenomenon restricting researchers’ freedom of expression is harassment. Harassment refers to personal attacks or otherwise inappropriate feedback with the aim of silencing the researcher or questioning their expertise. University of Helsinki Research Fellow Oula Silvennoinen, who helped devise the recommendations for the TJNK project, highlights this as an global phenomenon. In the era of social media, harassment of researchers and experts has emerged as a concern in a way it has not done before.
“There are many different sources and causes for harassment, but social media is absolutely the most typical channel.”
Centralised support to the entire research community
Problems related to harassment have been identified in the research community for quite some time now. Many organisations have prepared various support measures and guidelines but thus far, such action has lacked coordination. The first recommendation of the TJNK project is that work supporting freedom of expression should be centralised to a single national support and coordination body. This authority would be responsible for providing advice and support in harassment situations and other attempts to restrict freedom of expression, as well as training and expert opinions related to the subject.
According to Silvennoinen, the limited resources in a country the size of Finland should be centralised in order to effectively address harassment and other problems. One potential model to emulate is Germany, where such tasks are handled by a joint organisation of higher education institutions, research centres, scientific funders, and the field’s trade unions.
The project’s second recommendation is to also ensure proper support to independent researchers in the event of harassment. Currently, researchers are in an inequal position when facing harassment, based on their employment contract status. Research organisations are legally mandated to support their research employees. However, independent researchers funded by grants are often left outside this protection.
In Finland, the most common phenomenon restricting researchers’ freedom of expression is harassment.
Training for researchers, crackdown on social media companies
Preparing for disturbing feedback and operating in harassment situations are essential skills in modern day scientific communication. If social impact is expected from science, researchers should be trained for scientific communication and protecting themselves from harassment. The third recommendation of the TJNK project is for scientific communication to be permanently included in researcher training at higher education institutions.
Silvennoinen states that communication training should be offered systematically by postgraduate studies at the latest. It can sometimes be assumed that the risk of harassment is only present in certain fields in humanities and social sciences. However, in heated social media conversations, research in nearly any field can quickly turn into a political bone of contention.
As such, in addition to developing researcher training and domestic support measures, it is important to understand the global changes behind the phenomenon. According to Silvennoinen, the operating logic of social media platforms is ideal for inciting harassment in a way that threatens the freedom of expression of researchers and experts.
“Surely, we must not allow companies headquartered outside the Finnish borders to disturb our social life simply because they find it to be good business.”
This core problem will not be solved through national means, but the broader shoulders of the European Union are needed to rein in the social media giants.
Sources: The Häiritsevä palaute website, TJNK’s recommendations for safeguarding the freedom of expression of researchers and experts
How to act in a harassment situation?
- Recognise the risk of harassment and prepare for it in advance as part of your scientific communication planning. Check if your organisation has guidelines for harassment situations. Professional communities also offer practical advice.
- Save any messages you receive and assess the severity of the situation. If the harassment includes any threat of violence, immediately contact the police and the safety authority in your organisation.
- Do not get left alone, always find support. Contact your superior, employer, funder, or union.
- Do not get provoked. If you respond to harassing messages, do it calmly, briefly, and politely – preferably according to a plan devised together with others.
