Protecting journalists

Protecting journalists

Crafting collective journalist safety and support in a Trump era

• New administration is talking about mass deportations, targeting marginalized populations, revoking 501c3 status. Lots of journalists are concerned – and the need for their whistleblowing, truth telling, mirroring, and democratizing information is more vital than ever. Trump has said journalists are the “enemy of the state”.
• Now is the generational bootcamp. Abolitionists started newspapers in the early 1800s. We can galvanize, organize, and step forward to activate for the voiceless now. Inform the public and protect the whistleblowers and truth tellers.
• How might we support journalists with DACA as DACA is very likely overturned next year?
• Concerns about the web as a publishing platform, for journalism and otherwise.
• Digital security and digital rights: journalists across the globe are disenfranchised. Spyware targeting journalists, especially in wartorn areas. How might we support them?
  • A project supported journalists in digital security and digital rights (e.g., VPNs, secure devices, knowledge of targeting campaigns, capacity building).
• How does information flow in authoritarian governments?
• What can communities do to organize and mobilize around supporting threats to journalism, especially as signals for upcoming problems brighten.
• Who is a journalist in this day and age of social media? Are we considering providing tools for all people who consider themselves truth tellers, including and especially not those who are professional journalists?
  • Journalists collect information that the whole public has a right to. A journalist uses a code of ethics & scrutiny to verify the authenticity and garner trust. Stories need to be accurate and reflect the most recent facts (even though facts can sometimes change as new information is unveiled over time). But, there’s no official credentialing so the lines are blurry. Professional journalists have a responsibility to be transparent about their process and source documents etc.
  • Social media with large followings have often replaced traditional journalism, sometimes with mis/disinformation campaigns. The same phenomenon holds true in Haiti across the world. “Smart phone journalists” can share information about anyone, anytime, without any process to authenticate it. How can we help fight against those mis/disinformation campaigns?
  • 40 years ago there were gatekeepers (e.g., editors) to mitigate the mis/disinformation campaigns. Now, with more information available in social media, there’s more information silos – fed by big tech algorithms – where people only interact with information they want.
  • What is the role of civic engagement and media literacy in the public?
  • “Lies take the elevator, truth takes the stairs”
• Boils down to digital security, media outlet’s resilience, safe software and safe hardware. Work with digital security experts who can help access the safety of your process.
• There’s also a huge value in garnering the public’s trust in a credible newsroom. Need to turn to grassroots movements to engage with community to build that trust. How do we do this?
  • Talk about things that are relevant to the population and talk about the people more, especially the people who are not often given voices within capitalism. Try to fight against people spreading mis/disinformation.
  • Local newsrooms need to happen at scale, too. Building and engaging an audience is vital. There’s no impact of journalism without an engaged audience. Yet, the decline of local newsrooms is paramount; newsrooms are downsizing and shuttering operations across the nation, and especially in small communities. This makes them especially vulnerable to mis/disinformation campaigns.
  • Self censorship is a phenomenon where journalists sensor their work due to fear of retaliation from the government, those with power, etc.
  • Tricky to identify where the population can hear you (tiktok?)? Information consumption has changed: how do we adapt to a short form video and hack the algorithm to get content in front of users.
  • Communities trust and know the people who are working and live in the community. Connection and proximity are part of building trust. Regain trust with information, other than short videos facebook etc.
  • How do we craft local stories that are interesting/engaging, in the age of clickbait? We have more information than ever before, but we’re less informed.
• There’s value in learning from authoritarian states and how they have engaged with.
• Whats the role of anonymity in safety and protection? Anonymity for sources is easily used, anonymity for journalists is tricky.
• Newsroom uses google platform as a collaborative tool. Google is not safe. What do we use instead?
  • Use the resources in this space to explore alternatives and consider trade offs with these tools: the ones who do digital security training, and infrared collective. Consuming problem with the various tools that google offers. Keep messaging etc end to end encrypted, newspack is open source but corporately owned (better ethics than google, but still in the corporation ecosystem).
  • Other tools: next cloud