By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Two major media firms threatened on Tuesday to pull out of South by Southwest (SXSW) after organizers of the major tech event in Austin canceled sessions about video gaming culture, including one on harassment, after receiving threats of violence.

Vox Media and BuzzFeed said by dropping the sessions at its gathering in March 2016, the organizers of SXSW Interactive are dodging their responsibilities to tackle a major issue that is engulfing gaming culture.

"By canceling the panels, they have cut off an opportunity to discuss a real and urgent problem in media and technology today," Vox Media said in a statement. Vox Media's CEO was set to be a featured speaker at SXSW, it said.

The industry has become embroiled in a movement that has come to be known as "Gamergate" in which self-described video game fans have lashed back aggressively online at criticism about sexism in gaming culture. The movement came into general public view more than a year ago.

On Monday, the head of the Interactive section of SXSW said that due to threats, it was cancelling the two sessions titled "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community" and "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games."

"In the seven days since announcing these two sessions, SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programing," Hugh Forrest, the SXSW Interactive director, said in a blog post.

The Interactive portion of South by Southwest, typically held in March, is one of the major annual events in the technology industry.

"If people cannot agree, disagree and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place that is free of online and offline harassment, then this marketplace of ideas is inevitably compromised," Forrest said in the post.

BuzzFeed sent a letter to SXSW organizers telling them the panels are taking on subjects that need to be addressed and it would withdraw from the conference if organizers do not reverse their decision.

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"We hope you can support the principle of free speech and engage a vital issue facing us and other constituents on the event," top BuzzFeed executives said in the letter.

The panel on harassment was scheduled to include several women who have been targets of the Gamergate movement, the letter said. BuzzFeed staff members are scheduled to speak or moderate on a half dozen panels at SXSW next year, it said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional story by Lisa Maria Garza in Dallas; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Eric Walsh)