Solidarity in the face of surveillance - Journalist Security - Committee to Protect Journalists

12.10.13

Solidarity in the face of surveillance - Journalist Security - Committee to Protect Journalists: U.S. journalists saw examples of this kind of solidarity following the revelations about the Justice Department's mass seizure of phone records from the Associated Press, the department's labeling of a Fox News reporter as a "co-conspirator," and the continued push by Obama administration officials for James Risen to testify about his source. But if colleagues like Rusbridger and Rosen are to be heeded, journalists now need to move from a reactive posture to a proactive one designed to address the mounting culture of harassment and intimidation of the press.

In the wake of Snowden's revelations, and in seeing what it has taken for Greenwald, Poitras, and others to report those stories, there has been an increased emphasis on and interest in digital security for journalists. The most trusted encryption and security technologies tend to be "open-source," meaning their programming codes remain open to inspection by anyone to ensure that there are no hidden vulnerabilities or built-in "back doors" allowing government intelligence agencies access to encrypted information. Open-source software is a model built on solidarity, one of showing your work, sharing your work, and supporting each other's work