News organisations “need to do more” to help female journalists who encounter online harassment as they do their jobs, a new study has found.

The Centre for Media Engagement in Texas interviewed 75 female journalists across the UK, US, Germany, India and Taiwan and found that “almost all” of them had experienced some form of targeted harassment, often because of their gender or sexuality, online.

Researchers did not specifically seek out women who had experienced harassment, but nevertheless found that online abuse had almost become a normal part of the job and a “prevalent problem” in the industry.