I was asked at a climate conference in Washington, D.C. recently to forgo my digital devices – no laptop, no phone, no watch. Given how bleak things are in this moment, and the fact that I had seen firsthand how frequently governments hack those they deem “dissidents” in the press freedom space – this layer […]
Tag: press freedom
To be silent, or not
This morning brought unsettling news. The Court of Appeals in the Philippines upheld the conviction for Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and her former colleague at Rappler, Rey Santos Jr., all but ensuring she could see as many as 100 years in prison on charges of criminal cyber libel. You read that right: if convicted on […]
Dealing with the Scary Stuff
A friend and colleague of mine who does human rights work alongside me mentioned recently that she went on vacation and left her work phone off the whole time, only to fear when she turned it back on she would learn someone she’d been in touch with had been murdered the night before. It wouldn’t […]
Russian Atrocities in Ukraine Foreshadow the Future of the GOP in its Willingness to Use Lies and Violence to Get Whatever it Wants
As the images and stories of the war–brought to us by courageous journalists–fill our feeds, I can’t stop thinking about the approval rating for the war from within Russia, or the fact that Russian soldiers who took over Chernobyl had no idea what the place was, or the dangers that lurked there silently. Propaganda and […]
Art and the Sacred in the Unexpected
Most every concert I’ve ever been to, when the main act starts, the crowd goes wild. Everyone paid for it, everyone anticipated it, everyone is glad it’s finally here. Even when the music was slower, there was always something about that first note that sends the crowd over the edge. There’s one notable exception in […]
Thoughts on Precedent Setting, Slippery Slopes, and the Fracture of Society
Say what you will about autocrats and fascists, enemies of democracy and illiberal rulers: I don’t fear them as much as I fear complacent, hesitant ‘progressives’ and ‘liberals.’ Don’t get me wrong, Vladimir Putin is far more deadly and dangerous than, say, Chuck Schumer or Kamala Harris. No question plenty of people in this world […]
Why You’re Probably Paying More for Gas, and Why that’s a Good Thing
Like you, I don’t love having to pay higher prices for, well, everything, but as inflation stands at nearly 7% and that eats into all of our pocketbooks, I’m hesitant to break out my pitchfork, at least without knowing a little more about what’s happening or why it’s happening. It stands to reason that as […]
Charged with Terrorism for Speaking Truth to Power
One of my colleagues has been named a terrorist by the Egyptian government. Authoritarian regimes, it turns out, don’t like it when human rights organizations criticize their efforts to quell dissent. For now, my colleague is safe, as he lives in the United States, yet in retaliation, Egypt has jailed and tortured his cousin and […]
The Formation of Paramilitary Forces within the United States
Much has been written about the recent rise of authoritarian power here in the “free world,” but when we live it day-in and day-out, it’s also easy to dismiss these claims as alarmist. That’s fair on some level; we live in a world where every “memetic” moment is driven by some degree of hyperbole, and […]
Is America Headed Toward Civil War?
Societies–because they’re made up of people–function a lot like people do as individuals. Just as you or I might bottle up our anger and then one day explode, so can a society bottle up its collective anger and then explode all at once. On an individual level, as well as a societal one, we can […]
