Journalists and Techies: An Important Alliance in Press Freedom, Safety
By: Sylvia A Martinez
Tags: Journalism, Death, Security, Tech, Digital Marketing

When journalists go missing — or worse, are murdered for investigating and reporting on government corruption or drug cartels — their investigative work and documents often disappear along with them. The work for which the journalist risked their life or freedom ends.

Efforts are underway to ensure that an investigative journalist’s work continues and is brought to light in the event a reporter’s life is tragically cut short, according to Javier Garza, a former Knight Fellow at the International Center for Journalists and former editorial director of El Siglo de Torreón. Garza said Andres D’Alessandro, executive director of the Newspaper Editors Association of Argentina, had an idea: What if a journalist’s notes, documents, etc. were preserved in a space, akin to a cloud, but with far more limited access and far greater security? In the event of a journalist’s jailing, disappearance or murder, another trusted journalist with access could pick up where the jailed or murdered journalist left off. Communication, trust, and the proper tech tools are key in making this journalistic handoff possible.

Keeping Investigative Information Safe

D’Alessandro asked Garza to partner with him to help give shape to this idea and bring it to fruition. The app or tech tool is still in its planning stages, but is necessary for journalists risking their lives to expose criminal behavior and corruption, said Garza, a fellow at the International Center for Journalists, who also does security work for journalists of the Word Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

“There’s a need to protect materials that are part of an investigation,” said Garza, who is also a working journalist and hosts a radio show in his native Mexico. “This way, if a journalist senses that an investigation might be dangerous, they can protect their materials by loading to a server and then that server could be accessed by other journalists.”

Keeping journalists safe and their work secure is a topic Garza has researched extensively and continues to work toward. Last year, he published Journalists Security in the Digital World: A Survey: Are We Using the Right Tools?

A Matter of Life and Death

Security and secure tools are important life and death topics impacting journalists across the globe, particularly in Latin America, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia and Western Europe. Garza’s survey revealed that 70 percent of journalists do not use secure file storage and sharing and even fewer use encryption, geo-tracking, and risk-assessment tools. This, despite 45 percent of respondents indicating “they’ve had a security experience that could have been improved by a digital tool,” according to the survey.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, ten of the 30 journalists who have been killed this year were killed in Mexico. That rate is on par with the one dozen journalists killed in 2016.

Garza knew Javier Valdez, a fellow Mexican journalist, who was gunned down in broad daylight in May. Valdez was one of the founders of Ríodoce, a weekly that reported on crime and corruption in Sinaloa, a state known for rampant drug trafficking and violence. Valdez’s highly publicized murder was condemned by international groups, but like 90 percent of journalists’ murders, remains unsolved.

Speaking the Same Language

Garza hopes there will be a secure tool that would work much like Google Drive or Dropbox, which could be accessed from anywhere should a journalist be driven into exile, go missing or be murdered.

Among the biggest hurdles he faces, Garza said, is having journalists and software developers communicate and understand one another. “The main issue has been to try to get understanding between the people who are developing circumvention technologies that help provide protection and avoid censorship and those who need and would use those technologies to speak the same language.” Journalists, particularly old-school journalists, are not tech-savvy — “they came of age between Atari and Nintendo” — while some developers lack understanding of the particular needs of journalists and human rights defenders and activists, Garza said.

A Work in Progress

While social media has helped add a layer of security, the need for tech tools to enhance journalists’ safety is still a work in progress.

“What would (the proper tools) look like in terms of architecture?” Garza asked. “Once we have a clear idea, then we can bring in some journalists, do some pilot runs, and make journalists aware that the tool is available.”