My passion is for human freedom. I became interested in the role of media and social change as a political activist, not as a journalist. For the past thirty years my colleagues and I have been involved in establishing independent media in more than 90 countries. I founded Internews, a global non-profit organization, to do this work.
We have seen first hand the power of information to change peoples’ lives. Sometimes it’s watching residents of a refugee camp get information in their native language from a radio station we helped set up with a staff we trained. It’s preparing journalists to cover intimate public health issues like HIV/AIDS with expertise and compassion. It’s assisting a devastated community following an earthquake or humanitarian disaster with vital information that saves lives. Empowering local voices all over the world.
Encounters with independent journalists, media entrepreneurs and activists have afforded me the privilege of getting to know many of the remarkable people who are described in Citizens Rising. These media visionaries are leaders of a democratic transformation of global politics and an information revolution that is reshaping our world faster than any previous force in human history.
It is my hope that you will come away from these web pages and the book inspired to make your own voices heard.