How CTemplar Can Help Journalists in Their Work?

The journalist profession is full of danger. According to the UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists, 1402 journalists have been killed since 1993. In the last decade (2010-2020), there have been 923 journalists around the world who have lost their lives. We believe that a secure email service for journalism can do a lot to prevent that.

Even in Europe and North America, there have been 59 journalist deaths in the last decade.

Here is a map that shows the heatmaps for murdered journalists around the world.

This is only the “tip of the iceberg”, or so to speak. Intelligence agencies track and monitor journalists at every step. They’re forcing them to constantly look over their shoulders and intimidate them in other ways to “keep their mouth shut” about their findings.

In this article, we’ll look at the two most important technologies journalists should use to stay safe. We’ll also look at how a secure email service for journalism will help them stay anonymous.

Using OpenPGP Encryption for Journalism

What journalists can do to protect themselves and their informants (as they too are at risk here)?

Besides the usual like using strong passwords, making sure their Internet connection and traffic is secure, using VPN services, backing up their important files and using 2FA, there are a few other things that journalists and whistleblowers should do.

For starters, they should learn more about encryption technology and how it can serve them. Many journalists are aware of this, but lack the technological know-how to properly employ encryption technologies in their work.

One encryption technology that can be very useful for journalists is OpenPGP. This is an asymmetric encryption technology. That means that it is based on two keys, one private and the other public. 

The public key encrypts the message, which only the private key can open. The private key is unique to the recipient. If anyone else intercepts and tries to open the message, they won’t be able to. There is no way to figure out the private key from the public key.

Unfortunately, OpenPGP can be difficult to install and set up, which turns many of the less technically savvy away. You can check this guide on how to do that.

Once OpenPGP is on, it becomes pretty easy to use. This will ensure:

How Can Journalists Use Onion Email to Stay Safe Online?

Another privacy tool journalists can use is the Tor (The onion router)  browser, or more specifically the onion email.

Why should journalists use .onion email?

Let’s say their source fears for their life, career, job, reputation, etc. Tor allows the journalist and their source to communicate without fear of exposing.

At the same time, Tor allows journalists to access geo-restricted content and websites. This can be very important for journalists in regimes where there is a lot of censorship.

CTemplar has an official Tor onion address you can use to protect yourself.

First, you need to download and install the Tor browser to access a .onion address. You can do this by going to Tor Project and downloading the browser for your OS.

Super Secure Email Service for Journalism

According to the Council of Europe, 128 journalists have been detained or imprisoned in Europe since 2015. Even where they are not threatened by prison measures, journalists and whistleblowers, are not free from some government pressure.

One of the biggest obstacles for journalists to use these encryption and privacy technologies is the lack of proper knowledge. They are often (at least of the non-tech savvy) difficult to even install and set up.

Luckily, we have an email service for journalism that is both very secure and easy to use. CTemplar can help you stay anonymous as you send and receive sensitive messages and files on the Internet.

Our servers are in Iceland, which is outside the 14 Eyes countries. This makes us pretty much the only email system the NSA can’t access. That means that your emails are well protected by some of the strongest privacy laws in the world.

CTemplar allows you to be completely anonymous. We do not record, monitor, store, log, or share any of your data. You can sign up without SMS verification, credit card and we’ll also hide your IP from trackers.

We even have Zero-Knowledge Password protection. That means even we are not able to access your password (unless you set up a recovery email). So even if we get a court order to reveal your password, we won’t be able to do this.

Our paid plan members will also find the Dead Man’s Timer and Delayed Delivery features very useful.

For instance, if the government incarcerates a journalist before he has the chance to send an email, a Dead Man’s Timer will do this automatically even if they can’t log to their account.

To create a Dead Man’s Timer:

  1. Start composing a new message;
  2. Click on Dead Man’s Timer;
  3. Set the timer in the pop-up;
  4. Click Sent once the email is ready.

Delayed Delivery feature can also be valuable for journalists using CTemplar. Especially when they need to schedule the delivery of their email until a specific date or event.

To delay or schedule an email:

  1. Start composing an email message;
  2. Click Delayed delivery;
  3. Choose the date and time you want to send the email;
  4. Confirm;
  5. Click Sent once the email is ready.

Finally, we are one of the very few anonymous email providers that will permanently delete your data when you press the Delete. Since many other providers have their servers in countries like Germany or Switzerland, by law they have to keep this data for at least 6 months before they can perma-delete something.

That’s plenty of time for government agencies to “scrutinize” your email messages.

CTemplar uses OpenPGP End-to-End (E2E) encryption, which means you don’t have to install it on your own. All you need to do is sign up for CTemplar and take advantage of the best anonymous service for journalists around.