Digital safety
Digital safety guides and toolkits
- Digital Safety Kit – CPJ.The site provides digital safety tips to help journalists protect their data, devices, and sources against hacking and data theft.
- Security in-a-Box – Front Line Defenders. A guide to digital security for activists and human rights defenders.
- The WIRED Guide to Digital Security – WIRED. A guide to improve online security posture based on different levels of risks.
- Digital Hygiene 101 – EngageMedia. A short guide on how to put into practice the basics of digital safety and security.
- The 2025 journalist’s digital security checklist – Freedom of the Press Foundation. This checklist offers practical tips to help journalists protect their accounts, devices, and communications from digital threats like hacking and surveillance.
- Surveillance Self-Defense: Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications – Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). It provides up-to-date guidance on basic digital security techniques, tools, and further learning in multiple languages.
- Preserving Truth to Power — OpenArchive. This guide provides ethical and safety tips for citizen reporters and human rights defenders storing sensitive mobile media.
- The Tactical Tech – Tactical Tech. This website presents tools, guides, and projects that help people understand and respond to the impact of technology on society. It focuses on digital privacy, data ethics, and how to use tech critically and responsibly, especially for activists, journalists, and civil society.
Training and capacity-building
- Digital security training – Totem Project. Totem is an online platform that helps journalists use digital security and privacy tools and tactics more effectively in their work.
- Guide for digital security training – Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). A guide providing news organisations, freelance, and citizen journalists with tools and best practices related to digital security.
- OnTheLine – International Press Institute (IPI). A programme building measures and monitoring online harassment of journalists.
- Editor Safety Hub – ACOS Alliance and WAN-IFRA. Free online training to help news editors safely assign and manage journalistic work focusing on digital, physical, legal, and mental safety.
Real-time support and incident report
- Digital Security Helpline – Access Now. A free-of-charge 24/7 resource that offers real-time, direct technical assistance, and advice to media organisations and journalists
- Helpdesk – Security Matters. They provide digital security incident support and protection for the communities at risk in Southeast Asia.
Online harassment
- Online harassment – Pen America. A field manual on the preparation, response, legal and support systems that are useful to journalists.
- Online harassment – CPJ. Specific to psychological safety and mental health, this article outlines pre-emptive and immediate steps on how to protect yourself.
- Online harassment – Troll Busters. Infographic showing how to deal with website attacks, being impersonated or doxed, or what to do if threats escalate.
- Dealing with trolls – The Guardian. A step-by-step guide on how to deal with internet attackers.
- Trolling and doxing – The Rory Peck Trust.This page offers practical tips for freelance journalists to handle online harassment like trolling and doxxing.
- Online trolls shouldn’t be allowed to intimidate journalists – The Conversation. Statistics of online harassment and journalists and how they specifically target as well as ways to deal with them.
- Digital Safety Guide for LGBTQ+ Activists in Africa – Access Now. The guide helps LGBTQ+ activists in Africa stay safe online by offering practical tips, tools, and support against digital threats.
Online gender-based violence
- Online violence towards women – International Journalists’ Network (IJNet).The article discusses how online attacks harm women journalists and presents action to stop them.
- Silence and Omissions – The Journalism Initiative on Gender-based Violence (JiG). A media guide for covering gender-based violence, developed by the JiG from the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership.
Physical safety
Training and capacity-building
- SAFE Journalist Training & Resources – RTDNA. This programme offers safety training and resources to help U.S. journalists report securely, especially in high-risk situations like protests or civil unrest.
- Editor Safety Hub – ACOS Alliance and WAN-IFRA. Free online training to help news editors safely assign and manage journalistic work focusing on digital, physical, legal, and mental safety.
Field assignment preparation and risk assessment
- Basic bulleted advice on assignment preparation – Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Information on solo reporting and the necessary preparations needed for before and during fieldwork.
- Security Assessment form – CPJ. A checklist to aid in the knowledge and preparation of assessing the security of a situation.
- Safety Advisory: Covering US protests over police violence – CPJ. This page gives safety tips for journalists covering U.S. protests, focusing on risks like police violence, arrests, and COVID-19.
- Editors’ Checklist – CPJ. A checklist enables commissioners and editors to understand how well prepared journalists and other media workers are as they cover US protests over police violence.
- Emergencies Resource Centre – CPJ. This page shares critical resources to help journalists prepare for an assignment or respond to an emergency.
- Protecting Sources – CPJ（”Assessing and Responding to Risk”, Chapter 2). Useful article on protecting resources and information when covering topics such as armed conflict and national security.
Emergency situations and hostile environments
- Basic First Aid Youtube Videos – CPJ. A series of first aid videos aimed at journalists facing serious injuries and situations.
- Captive Situations – CPJ (“Assessing and responding to risk”, Chapter 5). A description of possible captive situations and actions to take to protect yourself.
- List of insurance providers for journalists – Details of insurance policy recommendations for journalists, local media, RSF and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) by ACOS Alliance (A Culture Of Safety Alliance).
Sexual harassment and awareness
- Sexual Violence – CPJ（”Assessing and Responding to Risk”, Chapter 4). First-hand advice on the precautions to take to avoid sexual violence in a series of situations.
- Know Your Rights: Workplace Sexual Harassment – American Association of University Women (AAUW). Information on workplace rights in Q&A format.
- What is sexual harassment? – New York Times. An article outlining what sexual harassment is and what can be done within the workplace to combat and prevent it.
Legal advice
- Shield laws – Page about the shield laws that protect journalists but not citizen journalists.
- International humanitarian law – International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). A set of answers to questions asked about journalists protection by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Journalists – Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI). Statements on the rights of journalists.
Mental health
Well-being and stress management
- Resources for Well-Being and Stress Management – Front Line Defenders.
- Psychological First Aid – Totem Project. A course to help those who need psychological support and to know what tools to use to safeguard one’s own mental health.
- A Mental Health Guide for Journalists Facing Online Violence – International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). A guide touching upon mental health designed by professionals specialising in trauma and the media.
- Journalists in Distress Network – CPJ. Resources for journalists who have received serious threats or are in distress in relation to their work, and may need emergency relocation.
Trauma reporting and exposure
- Working with Traumatic Imagery – The Dart Centre for Journalism & Trauma.
- Trauma Reporting: A Journalist’s Guide to Covering Sensitive Stories – Jo Healey. Guide to interviewing people who have undergone trauma.
- FCC HK’s video with Paul Yip on mental health discusses the sensitivities when writing about suicide. This can be found in section four of the document.
- Suicide reporting for media professionals – The Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention. A guide on how suicides have been reported in Hong Kong in the past. Outlines how suicide media can be reported in a more sensitive manner.
Support for exiled or at-risk journalists
- Exiled Media Toolkit – International Journalists’ Network (IJNet). In partnership with the Network of Exiles Media Outlets (NEMO), this toolkit provides advice for exiled media on how to reestablish themselves, remain relevant for their readership, fundraise and maintain financial stability, create and maintain a network, and provide mental health support for exiled journalists.
- Advice for journalists forced into exile – IJNet. This article shares advice for journalists forced into exile, helping them continue reporting from abroad.
- Coping With Prison – dedicated collective. This website provides a collection of resources for people who are preparing to go to prison, and for their families, lawyers, and supporters.
- Guide for psychologists in the emergency care of journalists – UNESCO & IWMF. The guide helps psychologists support journalists facing trauma, especially women, during emergencies. It provides tools to stabilise their mental state and improve safety decisions.
OSINT
- OCCRP Aleph – OCCRP. Free data platform that can help journalists investigate crime and corruption by searching and linking millions of public and leaked records.
Other resources
Financial sustainability and support
- Sustainability & viability research reports – GFMD & IMPACT. This page shares research and case studies on how to make independent journalism more financially sustainable.
- Journalist and Newsroom Safety – IWMF. This page presents the resources IWMF provides to protect women and nonbinary journalists worldwide, including emergency help, funds, safety training, and support against physical and online threats.
- Media Viability toolkits – Free Press Unlimited. This page provides practical resources to help independent media become financially sustainable and resilient, especially in challenging environments.
- List of insurance providers for journalists – ACOS Alliance (A Culture Of Safety Alliance). Details of insurance policy recommendations for journalists, local media, RSF and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
- The IFJ Safety Fund – International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). This fund offers financial assistance in a range of emergency cases such as threats, violence and threats thereof, prosecution, settlement in exile, and illness.