Handbooks & Guides

WAN-IFRA – Top cybersecurity tips and tools for journalists

“I do not think journalists take their basic mobile and data security seriously enough,” Director of the International News Safety Institute, Hannah Storm, told the World Editors Forum: “It seems to be over the last six months there has been a greater number or almost a greater excuse for people to say ‘Let’s target the journalist,’” she said. So, how can journalists better protect themselves from cyber attack? Lucy Dean and Krysten Dawes report.

Here theye’ve curated lists of his cyber and mobile security tips and his recommended tools, backed up by independent review.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) – Digital Security for Journalists

It is a help desk featuring information on training, digital security guides, and FAQs/dangerous misconceptions.

Holistic Security Protocol for Human Rights Defenders (Open Briefing)

The Holistic Security Protocol for Human Rights Defenders (the Defender’s Protocol) helps us advance our physical safety, digital security, and wellbeing and resilience. By following the Protocol, they enhance their individual and collective security, and can reduce the burden of attacks, harassment, and censorship on them and their communities.

The Defender's Protocol was created by Open Briefing and made possible thanks to the support of the National Endowment for Democracy, Ford Foundation, and Oak Foundation.

Frontline Defenders – Security-in-a-box: Digital security tools and tactics

The Tactics Guides in this toolkit cover basic principles such as how to create strong passphrases and avoid malware. The Tool Guides offer step-by-step instructions to help you install, configure and use essential digital-security software and services.

Security in a Box is jointly developed by Front Line Defenders and Tactical Tech, along with a global network of activists, trainers and digital security experts.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – Surveillance Self-defense (SSD): Tips, tools, and how-to’s for safer online communications

They are the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an independent non-profit working to protect online privacy for nearly thirty years. This is Surveillance Self-Defense : our expert guide to protecting you and your friends from online spying.

Read the BASICS to find out how online surveillance works. Dive into our TOOL GUIDES for instructions to installing our pick of the best, most secure applications. We have more detailed information in our FURTHER LEARNING sections. If you’d like a guided tour, look for our list of common SECURITY SCENARIOS.

Deutsche Welle (DW) Akademie’s DigiSecurity Threat Check

It is an online tool that helps you to identify potential online threats and develop policy recommendations to protect your organisation. Threat Check makes it easy – simply answer a series of questions to build a tailored digital security policy that best works for you and your staff.

CPJ’s Journalists’ Safety Guide and Safety Kit,

CPJ also created a Digital Safety Kit in English, Español, Français, and Русский.

This guide details what journalists need to know in a new and changing world. It is aimed at local and international journalists of varied levels of experience. The guide outlines basic preparedness for new journalists taking on their first assignments around the world, offers refresher information for mid-career journalists returning to the field, and provides advice on complex issues such as digital security and threat assessment for journalists of all experience levels.

Youth and Violent Extremism on Social Media (UNESCO)

Does social media lead vulnerable individuals to resort to violence? Many people believe it does. And they respond with online censorship, surveillance and counter-speech. But what do we really know about the Internet as a cause, and what do we know about the impact of these reactions? All over the world, governments and Internet companies are making decisions on the basis of assumptions about the causes and remedies to violent attacks. The challenge is to have analysis and responses firmly grounded. The need is for a policy that is constructed on the basis of facts and evidence, and not founded on hunches – or driven by panic and fearmongering.

It is in this context that UNESCO has commissioned the study titled Youth and Violent Extremism on Social Media – Mapping the Research. This work provides a global mapping of research (mainly during 2012-16) about the assumed roles played by social media in violent radicalization processes, especially when they affect youth and women. The research responds to the belief that the Internet at large is an active vector for violent radicalization that facilitates the proliferation of violent extremist ideologies. Indeed, much research shows that protagonists are indeed heavily spread throughout the Internet. There is a growing body of knowledge about how terrorists use cyberspace. Less clear, however, is the impact of this use, and even more opaque is the extent to which counter measures are helping to promote peaceful alternatives. While Internet may play a facilitating role, it is not established that there is a causative link between it and radicalization towards extremism, violent radicalization, or the commission of actual acts of extremist violence.

Guidance for Broadcasters: On using third-party content, including social media content (New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority)

In consultation with a working group of broadcasters, the BSA has prepared a guidance note to assist broadcasters when reporting on terrorism, violent extremism and crisis events.

The note follows the issue of decisions by the BSA in 2019 on broadcast coverage of the March 15 Mosque attacks. It recognises the important role that media play in reporting during such events and the balance to be achieved to avoid causing harm. The guidance highlights key considerations when reporting on terrorism and other extreme events.

Countering Online Hate Speech (UNESCO)

The present report provides a global overview of the dynamics characterizing hate speech online and some of the measures that have been adopted to counteract and mitigate it, highlighting good practices that have emerged at the local and global levels. While the study offers a comprehensive analysis of the international, regional and national normative frameworks developed to address hate speech online, and their repercussions for freedom of expression, it places particular emphasis on social and non-regulatory mechanisms that can help to counter the production, dissemination and impact of hateful messages online.

Bookmarks: A Manual for Combating Hate Speech Online Through Human Rights Education (Council of Europe)

This manual has been designed to support the No Hate Speech Move-ment, the Council of Europe’s youth Campaign against hate speech online, and will be useful for educators working to address this problem, both inside and outside the formal education system. The manual is designed for working with young people aged 13 to 18; however, activi-ties can be adapted to other age ranges and other profiles of learners.