The article, A holistic approach to operational and digital security, is included in Media Impact Funders’ (MIF) new report — Global Media Philanthropy: What Funders Need to Know About Data, Trends and Pressing Issues Facing the Field that draws on data from MIF’s media grants data map and results from a survey of leading organizations engaged in funding media-related projects around the world, analyzes existing literature and reports, and offers insights from experts across a range of media funding issues. The report was produced with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In their article, Reid and Rouse argue that a shrinking civic space and advanced technological means of attacking, surveilling, and silencing critics should concern all those who support civil society and other development objectives, and especially those who work with independent, investigative and community news organizations. According to Reporters without Borders’ 2018 report, “The climate of hatred is steadily more visible… The line separating verbal violence from physical violence is dissolving.”

While the digital age has greatly increased the potential for journalists to hold those in power to account, this same proliferation of information online has left journalists more vulnerable to adversaries. Beyond the killings reported around the world, journalists are being harassed physically, digitally and through the courts. While human rights and media organizations are often on the front lines of these attacks, risk and security must be considered when supporting health, environment, education, and other sectors as well, as they too are increasingly coming under attack.