World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day
Via Nina Trankova 

Take a moment to mentally support freedom of speech. Remember the bravery of journalists who die in their investigations, whose whistleblowing research leads to untimely and mysterious death, or whose words are never published because of political restrictions.

Then, celebrate our ability to freely express opinions, agree, and disagree in the Google+ community.

At one time In pre-internet days,  I was at a University "teaching" junior high school students writing. They were part of a program called "College for Kids." 

They decided that the group project would be a magazine of short stories, essays and art work they produced during the course time.

They were thrilled to produce in freedom whatever they wanted using whatever words or images they chose. Outside the boundaries of normal school they were in a perceived "adult" environment at university.

Immediately they accepted the freedom and sprinkled words like damn or kissing scenes into the content feeling that they had the right to say whatever they wanted, that freedom of speech was assumed. They grumbled about adults and imposed restrictions deliberately flaunting their freedom to say whatever came to mind.

One student was a girl originally from Guatemala where "disappearing" was a frequent result of expressing personal opinion. 

I gently reminded the group that freedom of speech is not present everywhere and that in the United States we are blessed with that Constitutional right. That in Guatemala (at that time) and in many other countries just saying they had the right to free expression could result in jail or worse.

As a group the students realized that the readers of the magazine would be their parents and officials at the university. They self-edited content to exclude most swear words and any explicit "sex." 

Creating work to be published which entails speaking your mind, is a process of distilling the words chosen to exhibit the thoughts, sentiments and beliefs conveyed in the final text.

Here on Google+ your audience will find you.

#journalism   #freedomofspeech  

Originally shared by Google

The Internet allows journalists and writers to communicate critical information freely around the world. Yet in many countries, this right to share videos, blogs and other news online is threatened by laws that censor and, in some cases, criminalize free speech. On World Press Freedom Day, Google and UNESCO join forces in calling for an Internet that respects human rights, including and especially the right to free expression. Check out UNESCO’s knowledge tools to help you defend your right to #keepspeechfree: http://goo.gl/sKuQsr