Two hundred journalists have been killed in the last five years, with another 500 imprisoned; 64 journalists are currently missing. Ahead of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, we are today launching a free app for freelance journalists and independent media organisations travelling or working in high-risk environments.

Users of Frontline Travel will receive tailored security guidance in English or Spanish. Using automated workflows, our country threat rating tool, and an adapted version of the Minimum Operating Travel Security Standards (also launched today), we are able to provide this targeted guidance within one hour. This is vital for those working in countries gripped by armed conflict or struggling under authoritarian regimes, for example.

Independent media are essential to the protection of human rights, the proper functioning of democracies, and the exposure of corruption and other crimes. Frontline Travel is our contribution to ensuring the safety of those working to report the truth under dangerous circumstances.

Frontline Travel is available now at https://frontlinetravel.org/.

Frontline Travel and MOTSS continue the ‘(Em)powered by Open Briefing’ series that we introduced two weeks ago with the Holistic Security Toolkit. They cement our commitment to producing multilingual tools to help under-resourced civil society organisations and activists ensure their own safety and security.

This project was possible thanks to the support of the National Endowment for Democracy and Oak Foundation.