Since the end of 2020, the project Media-K Internews in Kyrgyzstan has launched a new direction – the support of local media in digital and physical security.
On a competitive basis, five editions are selected for continuous learning over six months with the support of a digital security specialist.
The work on training editors is carried out in partnership with CIIP (Civil Initiative for Internet Policy).
All editorial staff, including administrative departments, participated in digital security residences, setting up two-factor authentication on office computers and personal devices.
Within the framework of the Media-K project, licensed software packages and antivirus programs are installed in all outlets.
“The number of journalists lacking digital security has increased due to the political instability, the growth of investigative and critical materials, as well as the complete transition of most news company’s offices to online due to the pandemic. The extended online mode increases the digital security risks,” says Elina Karakulova, Director of the Internews Representative Office in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Over the past two years, physical and cyber-attacks on journalists, hacking of outlet offices and computers, and hacker attacks on websites have become more frequent, which has significantly increased the vulnerability of news companies in the digital environment and increased the need to work through secure tools.
According to Elina Karakulova, the gradual introduction of digital security habits and a conscious understanding of how to use new tools are very important for journalists.
Dilbar Alimova, editor-in-chief of PolitKlinika:
– For this project, we have passed training on digital security,
We learned how to protect our data on the Internet. We learned how to protect our website, the social network pages, and the personal pages of journalists.
Likewise, we switched our email addresses and social media accounts to two-factor authentication. Our daily work has become more secure.
Nurlan uulu Nurbek, technical director of Govori TV:
– We gained knowledge on how to protect our site from hacker attacks. It became much easier for us to work with the tools that we received. We have learned many things about security that we learned about before.
Ormon Amangeldiev, SMM specialist, Govori TV:
– Previously, we always had problems on Facebook. Once a month, our page was blocked. We were taught many digital security tools and are trying to use all of these in our work. We work on Facebook, Instagram, Odnoklassniki, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
