• Doxx yourself. Doxxing yourself frequently gives you an indication of how much of your personal information is out there. Treat yourself like an investigation and perform searches using your phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses, reverse image search your profile images and put yourself in the shoes of a would-be doxxer. Knowing what is out there, and how easy it is to find, will let you know what you need to remedy before being doxxed by someone undesirable. In order to mitigate the impact of doxing the main step is to make sure that you minimize the personal information you share on online platforms. SUPPORT STRUCTURES FOR JOURNALISTS Traditionally, journalism as a profession, has always had institutional support structures that support the journalism community. These support structures have always played a role in supporting the fourth estate role of journalism, and its importance, as a profession in supporting democracy and public opinion formation. These include, international organisations like the International Federation of Journalists, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Global Investigative Journalism Network, Freedom House, International Committee for the Protection of Journalists(ICJ) and regional media organisations such as Media Institute of Southern Africa. WHAT DO IF YOU ARE UNDER SURVEILLANCE? A journalist who is subjected to surveillance, or suspect being subjected to such, should notify these international support structures for journalists. They are very instrumental at documenting such cases, making them known through existing networks, and exposing blatant abuse of surveillance especially by state and quasi-state actors. A surveilled journalist, should also inform local organizations within their countries who work in conjunction with these global organizations. In Southern Africa, there is a trend that every country has an editors’ forum, or such organizations for local journalists who can raise the issue with the authorities. Raising the issue and making it public often scares away culprits from taking more tragic action like assassinating a journalist once their cover is blown. Also, most of the global journalism organizations where are very influential such that they can exert influence and policy shifts on states, or in the least, a lull in surveillance activities. It is also important for journalists to weigh the option of judicial intervention. Usually the courts shy away from adjudicating on speculative cases, but once a journalist establishes the existence of surveillance, a judicial review of such action is often route that can yield the desirable results of fending off the state from journalism work. THE ROLE OF NEWSROOMS When a journalist is or believes they are under surveillance they should as a first port of call inform newsroom management, who have a responsibility to protect their journalists. Taking actions such as changing electronic gadgets, changing email addresses, deleting old emails to avoid fishing of old data, changing passwords etc. can mitigate some of the surveillance tactics. Newsroom management can assist further by helping in the purchase of new and more secure devices, raising the issue with the alleged perpetrators of surveillance. At institutional level, newsroom management can engage the alleged perpetrators and register their awareness of the matter. A SURVIVAL TOOLKIT FOR JOURNALISTS Page 17