Increasingly, investigative journalists are being hacked, doxxed, harassed, and assaulted by external threats, so GIJN — with generous support from the Ford Foundation — is proud to launch a first-of-its-kind safety guide for newsrooms at GIJC21: the Journalist Security Assessment Tool (JSAT).
GIJN is publishing a new business tools guide focused on helping news outlets solve their administrative needs. Written by Talya Cooper and illustrated by Chafiq Faiz, the guide includes useful software and applications – many of which are free – for small newsrooms. Tools included cover administration, management, communication, file sharing, accounting, SEO, audience engagement, audiovisual, content management, subscriber management, design and data visualization, social media and email marketing, site security, and password management.
Afghan journalist Zahra Joya, 28, is not hopeful of a bright future for women journalists in her country. In November 2020, she used her personal savings to recruit five women journalists and start Rukhshana Media. They wanted to go around the country and tell the stories of maternal mortality, domestic violence and women’s reproductive health. Since then, they have published stories on the taboo of menstruation, child marriage, street harassment, gender discrimination and what it means to live as a survivor of rape.
In an effort to help journalists and others trying to leave Afghanistan, GIJN has put together this list of resources for emergency evacuation and asylum processes.
The digital security risk to investigative journalism was reaffirmed this month with the release of the Pegasus Project. This involved collaborative reporting by 17 global media outlets on a list of thousands of leaked phone numbers allegedly selected for possible surveillance by government clients of Israeli firm NSO Group. At least 180 journalists are implicated as targets. It also sheds light on four chilling cases profile here.
Investigative reporters around the world are tightening their digital safety habits, out of concern that emergency pandemic laws, new spy technologies, and the lockdown itself have exposed journalists to even greater threats of surveillance and harassment. A dozen reporters and experts interviewed by GIJN agreed that sound digital hygiene was no longer optional for journalists in the COVID-19 world — and offered 10 security tips, including threat modelling, encrypted document transfer, and virtual burner phones.
Why do people put stickers over their webcams? It’s well known in tech circles that a camera in a computer or smartphone can be turned on remotely by an attacker with the resources, time and motivation.
Journalists who work in authoritarian environments tend to be under electronic surveillance. Sometimes surveillance is being conducted at a mass scale — rather than directed at a specific target — and is intended to track what journalists in general are doing and what stories they are investigating. Here’s how to assess if surveillance is a potential or actual risk to privacy, personal safety, data security and the identities of sources.
If you’re a low-budget independent news site with few resources, you need to learn how to set up security parameters yourself or find technologists who can work pro-bono. The good news is that there are more than a few pro bono cybersecurity specialists willing to help journalists in distress.
Extraordinary documentation can make for an extraordinary story — and terrible trouble for sources if handled without enough care. Here’s a checklist to help reporters and news organizations protect their sources from getting hurt by materials posted along with a story.
Journalism is by definition investigative. However, the depth and scope of possibilities to unearth and bring to light wrongdoings of public interest has increased manifold, thanks to the way the Internet has been evolving in the last decade. To be a true investigative reporter today, it is indispensable to fine-tune the old philosophy with three new practices: be Open, Systematic and Safe.
Digital self-defense is becoming an important part of the journalistic toolkit. Beyond risks to everyone’s digital lives—webcam hacking, email breaches, identity theft—people who work in newsrooms have even more at stake. Newsrooms are some of the biggest targets in the world for state-sponsored digital attacks, as well as more routine threats.
Friday, November 13, 2015 was a strangely balmy night in Paris, the kind that makes visitors fall in love with the city. People spilled out of the cafés, winding down the workweek over glasses of wine, their chatter and laughter creating a soft hubbub on the streets, as pedestrians sidestepped the crow
Information stored on your computer or mobile is at risk. You could leave it on a train; it could be seized at an airport security checkpoint; or by the police or courts. And of course hackers can access your data. You need to be aware of all the risks and ways to protect your information, your sources and yourself.
Covering street protests involves risks that every journalist should be prepared for. Knowledge, experience, and planning can help reduce these risks. Our colleagues at Abraji (The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism) have particular experience with this — between May 2013 and May 2014, there were at least 171 cases of violations against media staff covering […]
Covering street protests involves risks that every journalist should be prepared for. Knowledge, experience and planning can help reduce these risks. To help journalists worldwide, Abraji has developed a guide, packed with tips and anecdotes from professionals who have experienced risky incidents while covering protests. Here’s an excerpt, covering how to prepare and how to act during the event.
A concise guide to digital security for investigative journalists, including email, passwords, logins, and malware, with links to tipsheets and tutorials.
Español Journalists are being strongly urged to protect their communications and information from growing threats. Yet several studies show that most of us in the media, despite believing the danger is real, are not adopting basic protections. The Rory Peck Foundation issued a Digital Security Guide aimed at freelancers, stressing that “even taking small, simple […]
The figures are grim for our colleagues around the world. Since 1992, more than 1,400 journalists have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Well over 890 of them have been murdered with impunity; that is, no killer was ever brought to justice. And today, more than 274 journalists are in prison worldwide, […]
