I'm watching the final official public hearing on media ownership -- in Seattle, Washington
-- and thinking about the impact the goverment and corporate domination
have over the rights of regular people, here and around the world.

This photograph was submitted to the New York Times by a reader of the paper from Pakistan today:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/09/world/09readerpakistan.337.jpg

Check out that "Free the Media" sign!

And earlier today, that photo was on the very front of their website.
It's also the posted-at-the-top photo they are using on the top of
their 'The Lede' blog, where they are asking Pakistani readers of the
times to send
their photos, stories, audio, and comments to the paper, as the
government tightens their crackdown on community freedoms:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/a-call-for-eyewitness-photos-video-and-text-from-pakistan/index.html?hp

One commenter had this to say:

"Report on the protest. Students across the country are organizing
themselves and protesting. Please keep the news on your front pages so
that our voices aren't silenced the way that Musharraf has silenced our
media."


It's moments like this which remind me why local, national, and global
media are life and death issues. Those struggling for their
freedom in Pakistan, and all of us, need access to an accountable local
press to make change, and to tell the world when injustice threatens to
silence us.


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hannah sassaman

prometheusradioproject

http://www.prometheusradio.org