Berlin Fellowship Program: Empowering Journalists in the Digital Field

Reporters Without Borders Germany offers journalists from crisis regions the opportunity to take a break in Berlin for four to six months and complete a training program in digital security.

The fellows are taught practical skills to protect themselves and their sources against digital threats as part of their journalistic work. In a second step, the fellows develop their own training concept to share the knowledge they have acquired with colleagues in their home countries. The aim is to extend knowledge of digital security beyond the fellowship program to protect media professionals.

The program has been funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises since 2018. In 2025, the fellowships were additionally supported by a fundraising campaign, including funds from Friede Springer Foundation.

Topics of the training program for digital self-defense

The main topics of the program include:

• holistic security basics for journalists, bloggers, media professionals and citizen journalists at risk
• operational security including risk assessments and security planning
• online identity management for investigative journalists, including technical background and practical use of anonymization tools
• secure online communication concepts, technology and tools, including secure online conferencing for interviews
• password and account security and data protection on social media and other online accounts for media work
• device security for computers and mobile phones of journalists at risk
• website security for media websites under attack
• secure online and offline data storage including encryption for media files
• online information verification and Open Source Intelligence
• digital violence (online gender-based violence, doxing, impersonation, trolling) 

Our 2025 Fellows include:

The alumni of the Berlin Fellowship Program: Empowering Journalists in the Digital Field