Will you help to hold the line?
‘When it is a battle for facts, it is journalists that hold the line’ Maria Ressa
Maria Ressa should know. As the co-founder and CEO of the Philippines online news website Rappler she has drawn the ire of President Duterte’s authoritarian regime and is now facing prison for exercising her right to free speech and for reporting the truth. Sadly she is not alone and her story has become the latest high profile touchstone for the experience of journalists and bloggers on all continents whose human rights are being suppressed. The situation is sadly getting worse.
A personal passion of mine is media freedom, freedom of speech and the need to protect journalists and independent media around the world. They are vital to a functioning democracy, but they are under threat. As with human rights defenders, journalists often have to navigate significant personal risk to themselves and their families to bear witness to corruption, environmental crimes and human rights abuse that would otherwise be silenced and the perpetrators unchallenged. It’s why I am hugely proud to be a trustee of Media Defence — providing a legal defence to journalists at risk in over 60 countries around the world last year — and to have contributed to early crowdfunders for now celebrated investigative journalism platforms like Bellingcat.
It was via one such crowdfunding campaign that in 2017 — along with 3,600 other people from 42 countries around the world — I became a ‘co-owner’ of New Internationalist. This was a unique opportunity to help secure the future of a media organization dedicated to socially conscious journalism and publishing. Amongst other things, the funds raised contributed to a revamp of both the print and online presence of a magazine that serves to invert our typically Western perspective and bring to light stories and the experiences of people that rarely make the front page of mainstream media in places like the UK. It comes down to a simple equation: How can we change the world for the better if the voices of a significant proportion of our global family are rendered mute? We can’t. And without platforms like New Internationalist, we won’t.
How can we change the world for the better if the voices of a significant proportion of our global family are rendered mute? We can’t. And without platforms like New Internationalist, we won’t.
As with all industries, the media has been affected by the pandemic in myriad ways and New Internationalist is no different. With the decline in news stand sales, ad revenue and event marketing this vital lens on social, environmental and humanitarian issues around the world is in a precarious position and is seeking more investors to join the original 3,600 and secure its future. Will you join us? You may not enjoy the riches of a typical media magnate — sorry we are all out of private jets — but it’s still pretty cool to say that you are a co-owner of a vibrant and well respected media platform! It’s particularly exciting to be part of that in what will be New Internationalist’s 50th year.
If you want to be part of that future and help to hold the line, please check out the crowdfunding campaign here and further details on what it means to own Community Shares here.
And if you want to find out more about the brilliantt Maria Ressa and her case, check out her recent interview (23 April 2021) as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas in association with English PEN: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/bristolideas-ressa/1
