Piqued by the growing legions of hazards confronting media practitioners in the country, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), has advised practising journalists to imbibe the culture of applying digital security for safety while performing their duties.
The programme officer, Esther Adeniyi, gave the advice at a two-day workshop on ‘Laws Affecting the Media and Safety of Journalists’ organised by the NGO with support from the MacArthur Foundation and the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusion and Accountability (CMEDI) project in Enugu State.
“As members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm whose duty is to inform, educate and enlighten the public, journalists are not free from cyber threats because of the nature of their job and so they should always do the best they can to keep themselves safe in the discharge of their duties.”
Adeniyi, who explained the import of digital security, common digital threats and contents of cyber security, said “digital security is simply what you do to keep yourself safe from cyber attack,” adding that the threat could come in various ways.
She listed the objectives to include confidentiality of data and integrity of data to ensure the accuracy of data.
According to her threats to confidentiality, integrity and accountability of data include unauthorised access, human error as well as transmission error.
She therefore enjoined the newsmen to verify the sources of their emails, and reasons why messages are in spam, hover over links, report phishing attempts, enable multi-factor authentication and also update their passwords regularly.
In her words “protecting the confidentiality, integrity and accountability of data entails access and monitoring use of multiple savers, data storage as well as monitoring and securing communication.
Adeniyi also stressed that common digital threats could manifest in phishing attacks, mallard attacks and malicious softwares capable of damaging systems.
She explained that the workshop was put in place to sensitive participating journalists on national laws and policies that guide media practice as well as regional and international instruments on safety of journalists, familiarize them with these laws and instruments, sensitive them on their legal rights and abilities as well as on how the laws and other instruments affect them and the practice of journalism both positively and negatively.
Legal officer of the organization, Monday Arunsi acknowledged freedom in the country as an integral part of democracy which helps to inform the public as contained in section 22 of the nation’s 1999 Constitution as amended.
“But for the legal components of our environment, some laws such as privacy law have imposed limitations to our freedom and the same section defines media responsibility to hold the government accountable for their actions, criticize and analyze government’s decisions and actions but regrettably, you cannot rely on it to defend yourself if you are charged.”
