Brief Nine - Global Media Law or Ethics

Spreading the Freedom

Living in the land of the free has always been normalcy for day to day Americans to the point where we don't even realize how good we have it. Even when it comes to the news we listen to, we have become accustomed to knowing everything as soon as it happens. However, for many countries, this is not the case,  information is hard to come by when looking at big topics, especially in countries where even the journalists have restrictions. As a believer that everyone deserves the freedoms for the press, Free Press Unlimited works to provide underdeveloped countries with the information they need and deserve.

Free Press Unlimited strongly believes that "everyone has the right to independent, reliable and timely information."  Journalists and news networks work extremely hard on a day to day basis to keep the public in the know, so imagine trying to do this with a restriction. In countries like China and Africa, many of these hard-working journalists work in fear as there are heavy restrictions on what they can say and even when. These restrictions not only place blame and fear onto journalists

but they keep the public out of the know.

Following the simple phrase, "people deserve to know," Free Press Unlimited works directly with these countries to get the information that they can use to better themselves or simply just information about governments or local happenings. For Example, they set out on new projects virtually every day. One project they completed allows Ethiopian Journalists to work without fear and spread information easily.  This app, Story Maker, which was launched in 2012, enables journalists complete access to an editing suite and sharing platform from the touch of a button, all you need is a mobile phone. These journalists use this app to spread information about the weather, local events, or cultural stories, and of course, government actions, but now they can do so without fear.

You may be asking, if these journalists write in fear, how can an app protection them from these harsh regulations? Great question. Free Press Unlimited houses a safety program where they offer emergency support, safety tools, and advocacy.  Emergency support provides protection from vandalism or intimidations and allows these journalists to get back to work, and feel good about doing so. Legal support is relatively self-explanatory, but Free Press Unlimited works to provide journalists, facing legal battles, with little to no cost help, where most of them would have been on their own. Safety training and advocacy are a way to give these journalists a backbone. While many of them are already very brave, working each day under strict rules and regulations, having someone to stand up for them and teaching them to stand up for themselves might be just what they need to do.

While we have just scratched the surface of what Free Press Unlimited does for journalists in restricted countries, we have already seen the impact they offer. Many of these authors work extremely hard to get their neighbors the information they deserve, and Free Press Unlimited is a helping hand in this process. Freedom is something we all take for granted; for many, it is unimaginable.