REPOSTED FROM PBS MEDIASHIFT
JournoSec is a column aimed at helping journalists better under the security, privacy and anonymity challenges they currently face, and steps they can take to protect themselves. Managed by OpenITP Outreach Manager Sandra Ordonez, it brings together leading voices from the community behind open-source technologies that circumvent censorship and surveillance. For more information, follow @OpenITP. To become more involved, contact sandraordonez AT OpenITP DOT org.

On my first trip to Iraq in 2005, I remember being very aware of my security situation. At the time, I had not been to hostile environment training, and when I arrived, the hulking South African ex-special forces Personal Protection Officer who was lucky enough to have been assigned to babysitting me for the next week, turned around to me in our B6 armored suburban and asked me, “Do you know the number one thing you can do today to get home safely?”

Looking awkwardly at the weapon sitting next to me while fiddling with the Velcro on my body armor I responded timidly, “No. What?”

“Fasten your seatbelt,” he said with a laugh.

The lesson is: Often when we get out of our comfort zone we forget to do the most basic safety customs like fastening your seatbelt or looking both ways to cross the street.

Below are some tips and tricks I learned while living and working abroad over the past 15 years. My mantra is not to forget the small stuff; more than likely you are going to be injured in a vehicle accident, a natural event such as an earthquake, or a random act like a hotel fire rather than the spectacular events we see every day on TV.

On May 7, the 110th anniversary of the Press Restoration, Language and Book Day in Lithuania, International Media Solutions LLC (IMS) congratulated the Lithuanian people, specifically their journalists, on the resumption of a free press.  Quoting the Austrian-born journalist and diplomat Henry Anatole Grunwald, “Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.” Given the events in Ukraine today, this quote should resonate with all those who stand up for our undeniable right to a free and fair press. 

International Media Solutions is pleased to announce on such a historic day, the formation of an international strategic partnership between our firm (www.international-media.net), a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) certified Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) based in Washington, DC and the Patriot Programmer Movement led by Olek Suchodolski based in Vilnius. Together we will be establishing an open Media Innovation Incubator within the Information Warfare Center (IWC) based in Vilnius, Lithuania to combat propaganda and informational warfare with real-time content creation that results in honest and fact-based reporting. At the center of the incubator is the revolutionary MoJo Kit® (www.mojokit.info); a high-definition, broadcast quality, multimedia mobile reporting tool for non-journalists and journalists. MoJo Kits® are currently deployed in Egypt, Guatemala, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and the United States. The latest version would be an information warfare device produced in Lithuania based entirely off of open-source technology and software. The device will allow the user to compose, produce, edit, and distribute HD multimedia content (print, audio, photo, and video), securely, in real-time without ever having to transfer sensitive data between devices.  No other public device in the world currently has this capability.