“Take positive steps to avert digital threats”-journalists, activists told

Executive Director of Spaces for Change (S4C), Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri has charged African journalists and civic actors working assiduously to advance cause of social justice within their various fields of endeavors to always strive hard to adopt positive measures socially and psychologically both online and offline in order to safeguard themselves from falling victims to digital threats.

According to her, proper application of digital hygiene techniques, backed by effective security of password and adherence to all social protection mechanisms are ways to go to mitigate the threats

“Always endeavour to keep your personal information personal; try to maintain a different persona from your work and your personal life.  Have secured password and be careful who you share information with, engage with offline or online and where you use your digital tools”.

She was speaking in an interview with the Human Rights Reporters’ Joseph Wemakor on the sidelines of a training workshop on digital security for reporters and civil society representatives held in Lagos, Nigeria

Dubbed: “Digital Clinic for Civic Actors” was a 2-day forum held from September 20-21, 2022 which seeks to empower and build capacities of journalists and civic actors on the need to protect their data confidentiality, integrity and availability from digitally skilled adversaries.

It was organized by Spaces for Change (S4C) in partnership with the Interactive Initiative for Social Impact (Dataphyte) and supported by the Civil Society Resource Hub (CSR-Hub)

The goal is to help journalists and civil society protect their information, data, devices and communications against digital security risks.

The chosen participants, numbering fifteen (15) were drawn from Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Nigeria across West Africa.

The beneficiaries were schooled on various topics including holding power accountable in a digital world which was conducted by Adenike Aloba, Program Director of Dataphyte while , whistleblowing policies and practices were treated by Jane Ify Aralu, a representative at Spaces for Change as well as the digital rights and its impact on the work of the media, CSOs and human rights defenders initiated by Adeboye Adegoke, Senior Manager of Paradigm Initiative.

Program Director at Dataphyte Adenike Aloba in her presentation admonished journalists and activists to always endeavor to keep their social media accounts private instead of public depending on their roles.

While stressing on prioritizing digital safety and adopting the right measures as a key to securing oneself and helping mitigate the threats, she averred that regulation is not the most effective way of preventing digital threats and encouraged the participants to be vigilant and take action always.

Spaces for Change (S4C) is a non-profit organization working to infuse human rights into social and economic governance processes in Nigeria.

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