Don’t Gamble Your Safety! How journalists and activists can assess risks online and in the field

About The Event

Do you think that there is a disconnect between your offline and online work environments? Are you often looking for safety methods, tools or tips that apply to your digital research / investigation, and yet for more “tangible” solutions to keep you safe during field work? How do you anticipate your threats, and how do you assess and address risks related to your work?

When shifting between digital and physical spaces, hidden threats also spill from one realm to the next. If not anticipated and addressed these can have a significant impact on the work and safety of journalists, activists and others gathering and communicating information as evidence.

Through the lenses of threat modelling and risk assessment, we will discuss the practical needs of switching between online and offline spaces as well as the ethical dilemmas that may arise and that journalists and activists have to face in their work. The discussion will also explore some of the knowledge and training gaps that need to be filled for safer practices.

In brief, the webinar will address:

• the practices of 'threat modelling' and 'risk assessment’ and how they relate: when does a threat become risky?
• the ethical dimensions of threat modelling (prior identification of threats);
• the opportunities that come from participatory risk assessment and mitigation activities;
• useful approaches that can be applied to various contexts, across “the offline and the online.”

Guest Speaker: Dimitri Bettoni

Dimitri Bettoni is a researcher at OBC Transeuropa and the Institute for Future Media Democracy and Society (FuJo) of the Dublin City University. His research focuses on surveillance technologies and cultures, both as a threat and opportunity for journalism, while exploring the intersections with topics such as disinformation, safety vs security, collaborative networks. He worked as a correspondent in Middle Eastern and Balkan countries, and he is a founding member of the Foreign Media Association in Turkey. His twitter account is: @DimitriBettoni1

Moderator: Léopold Salzenstein

Léopold Salzenstein is a freelance investigative journalist and researcher focusing on climate change. His work has been published in various online media, such as The New Humanitarian, Mongabay, The Third Pole and Climate Home News. Leopold has a Master’s degree in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation.

Registration

• Sign up to this free webinar here: https://events.exposingtheinvisible.org/eti/webinar-threat-modelling/
• Participants who sign up will receive the webinar link by email one day before the event. A reminder will be sent during the event day.
• The webinar takes place on 21 July at 16:00 - 17:30 CEST (Central European Summer Time.)
• The event will be recorded.