What comes to your mind when you hear the term ‘Risk Assessment?’ While it may often seem like a rather ambiguous —best used by an expert in the fields of Safety or Security, risk assessment stays integral to our daily lives as humans and most especially those dealing with sensitive professions like journalism.
This is why gatherings like the ACOS Alliance Annual Meeting held 22nd October to 23rd October, 2024 has become most timely and timeless to the practice and sustainability of Solutions Journalism.

If you’re one passionate about making real-time impact in the lives of the audience you serve. If you constantly hold power to accountability and dig out old dusty truths to limelight, then you’re right on track on the path to Solutions Journalism but risk assessment must also stay handy through your personal and professional life. It is this consciousness that the ACOS Alliance is spreading. Normalizing safety discussions among editors and their reporters, enlightening in-house and freelance journalists on holistic safety measures which include physical, digital and psychosocial.

The meeting began with a session of deep insights on the Layers of Safety by Ephraim Muchemi. This included lessons on the power of:
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) within News rooms.
• Paying special attention to hearing, listening and intention.
• Building as many safety channels and tools as possible.
• Social Engineering
• Risk Assessment categorized to physical, digital (data management), psychological (self care), legal (legal support) and financial (investment and budgeting on possible safety measures)—
• Situation awareness, self awareness, knowing your rights (media laws, editorial policies), financial literacy.
• Planning: Plan according to your environment, your identity, your profile.
• Counter surveillance: ie- Take a different route. Breaking routines.

Indeed, risk assessment helps us build many layers of safety, while doing this after the danger is way more expensive and risky.
In the words of Ephraim, ‘the beauty of layering is that, it dilutes anxieties at the face of seeming dangers.’
It’s also important to note that while ‘safety begins with you, you need to extend it to your family and those around you— this will build many layers of safety for you.’
Layering can also help reduce the physiological effect on you.
In all be prepared, not scared.

The 2024 ACOS Annual Meeting was designed to have various general and specialized sessions according to the field and interests of each participant.
These specialized sessions included ‘Digital Security 101’ This session shared on diverse ways on protecting one’s digital footprints including using pass phrases instead of passwords.
The characteristics of a high-quality pass phrase is that it’s:
• Random
• Long
• Unique to one account: a user password manager helps you remember unique pass phrases.

Next session was on the need for ‘Peer Support in Journalism’ even as a highly resilient profession. This involves ‘a deeply felt empathy, encouragement and assistance that people with shared experiences can offer each other within a reciprocal and equal relationship.’
This session also revealed how the more pressure people are under, the less unlikely they are to put their hands up for support. Therefore, peer support has to be intentional by embracing little things like being a good colleague, mentoring, chats when needed and practical/relatable experience sharing.

Tips for effective peer support which starts with active listening:
• Face the speaker and have eye contact
• Listen to non-verbal cues
• Don’t interrupt
• Listen without judging, or jumping to conclusion.
• Don’t start planning what to say next
• Show that you’re listening
• Don’t impose your opinions or solutions

The beauty about this session is that all participants learnt in not just the theories but also, in real-time practicals.

Among other numerous sessions, Dr. Michelle Ferrier, a pioneer in digital content and online education communities made a highly insightful presentation at the ACOS Annual Meeting on a recent media innovation by Trollbusters— with over 11 awards won in the last three years, the Trollbusters team are focused on creating ‘educational materials and trainings for journalists about digital safety and creating in a digital age.’

This presentation by Dr. Ferrier was on their latest project called, Navigator, an 𝗔𝗜 empowered assistant for journalists navigating online threats. While this is the first in the series of country-specific 𝗔𝗜 assistants, the goal is to expand reach to facilitate this emergency aid to other journalists in distress. Currently, the Navigator is a generative 𝗔𝗜 tool designed to provide guidance for UK- based media professionals about laws related to online safety.

In all, one of the key and solemn moments at the meeting was the time allocated for different journalists to share their real life experience of assaults, bully and various vices against the profession.

Napanoi Lepapa, a Freelance Investigative Journalist stressed on the need for a security plan when covering sensitive stories and how this saved her as an individual journalist.
In her words ‘you can’t just go to the field on your own, you have to collaborate with other journalists and media houses. It becomes hard to attack all of us than one of us.’

We can only go as far as we know.
To learn more about the ACOS Alliance opportunities and safety measures for journalists, visit:
https://www.acosalliance.org