A View from the Field: Confronting Press-Freedom Crackdowns

We provide regular updates from the field as staffers work alongside our amazing allies and activists to create a just and equitable media system.

• Vanessa Maria Graber spoke during “Not on Our Watch: A National Town Hall on Press Freedom,” which the National Association of Black Journalists hosted. The town hall, which NABJ organized following the unjust arrests of journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon, featured journalists, press-freedom organizations, civil-rights groups and newsmakers. Watch the town hall.
• Free Press teamed up with Centro Integral de la Mujer Madre Tierra, PhillyCAM and Temple University’s Center for Community-Engaged Media to launch Comunicadores, a collaborative of Spanish-speaking journalists, media workers, content creators and communications professionals in Philadelphia. Vanessa Maria is coordinating the project, which held its first event on Valentine’s Day. During the gathering, facilitators conducted an information-needs assessment of the group and discussed the opportunities and challenges they face in serving Spanish-speaking communities. Watch this video to learn more about Comunicadores.
• Joseph Torres took part in the panel discussion “The Telecommunications Act of 1996 at 30: An Analysis of Policy, Power and the Public Interest.” Public Knowledge and the Cathy Hughes School of Communications hosted the event at Howard University. The conversation explored structural challenges to media ownership and free expression as well as the ongoing mission to close the digital divide. “We have not dealt with the history of segregation in our media policy,” Joe said. “It is built on segregation.” Watch the event.
• Jessica J. González spoke at the Latino Media Collaborative’s partners’ meeting. She discussed policy interventions that can help stabilize funding sources for ethnic media. She pointed to the success of the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, which Free Press Action helped create. Since 2021, the NJCIC has awarded grants focused on diversifying journalism, improving government transparency, providing community-health news and better serving communities of color and immigrant communities.