Deadline: December 5, 2022.

Reporters Without Borders Germany offers journalists from war zones and crisis areas the opportunity to take a break in Berlin for four months and complete a training program in digital security.

The program is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.

It aims to provide participants with practical knowledge and skills to protect themselves against digital threats such as surveillance or hacker attacks in their journalistic activities. In a second phase, with the support of the trainer team, the participants prepare their own training concept, through which they can pass on their newly acquired knowledge to colleagues in their home countries as trainers. In this way, journalists outside the scholarship program can also benefit from the digital security skills taught in the program.

TOPICS

Main topics of the digital security training

• Holistic security basics for journalists, bloggers, media professionals and citizen journalists at risk
• Operational security including risk assessments and security planning
• Online identity management for investigative journalists, including technical background and practical use of anonymization tools
• Secure online communication concepts, technology and tools, including secure online conferencing for interviews
• Password and account security and data protection on social media and other online accounts for media work
• Device security for computers and mobile phones of journalists at risk
• Website security for media websites under attack
• Secure online and offline data storage including encryption for media files
• Online information verification and Open Source Intelligence

BENEFITS

1. They cover the travel costs, take care of all visa-related matters, provide and pay for an apartment in Berlin for the duration of the scholarship, grant a monthly allowance of 900€/month, free use of public transportation in Berlin and an extensive training program with qualified experts in the field of digital security.
2. Furthermore, during their stay in Berlin, scholarship holders will be given insights into the activities of Reporters Without Borders, a globally-active journalist and human rights organization.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Professional journalists, bloggers, media professionals and citizen journalists who

• are exposed to digital threats due to their work in their home regions.
• want to learn and work extensively with digital security in order to improve their personal security.
• are interested in passing on the knowledge acquired during the scholarship program to colleagues in their home regions and, ideally, already have some experience in teaching or other areas of knowledge transfer.
• are able and willing to fully participate in the program. We expect the applicants to be available for all activities of our program including the comprehensive training for digital security. Please plan with about 20 to 25 hours per week from the second until the fourth month of your stay in Berlin

REQUIREMENTS

1. Applicants must have a very strong command of the English language, as the whole scholarship program will be conducted entirely in English.
2. 2.Applicants must have adequate experience working as a journalist, be it as a professional journalist or a citizen journalist.
3. A high level of proficiency in regards to digital security is not required; anyone who is used to working with a computer and smart phone can apply.
4. Are able and willing to fully participate in all activites of the program (see above: Who can apply)
5. In addition, applicants must show that they are willing to return to their home region after the fellowship in Germany.
6. Previous teaching experience would be desirable.

APPLICATION

Please send a completed and signed application form, the completed questionnaire, your CV and a proof of identity (copy of your ID or your passport) as attachments in separate PDF documents (4 PDFs in total) via the Signal messenger service to +491636743853, or if you have a ProtonMail account to rsf.digitalfreedom[at]protonmail.com.

The application form and the questionnaire are fillable PDF files. Please fill in these files on a computer and send them to them in this form. Follow these instructions to ensure that they can read all your texts:

1. Save the two PDF files
2. Fill in the two files on your computer
3. Save the completed files again
4. Send the completed files to us

Please use the application form and questionnaire provided by us. They ask for your understanding that they can only contact applicants who are shortlisted for a spot on the program.

OFFICIAL LINK