Platform Accountability
A View from the Field: Fighting for Liberation and Free Speech
A View from the Field is an ongoing feature that highlights the efforts of Free Press’ team of organizers and advocates.
We provide regular updates from the field as staffers work alongside our amazing allies and activists to create a just and equitable media system.
- Diamond Hardiman and Venneikia Williams traveled to Accra, Ghana, to take part in “FORGE: Harnessing Creative Arts for Reparatory Justice”. The gathering featured artists, civil-society leaders, narrative strategists and reparations leaders from around the world. Participants created strategies in the spheres of journalism, organizing and philanthropy.
- Nora Benavidez gave the James D. Ewing Lecture on Ethics in Journalism at Duke University, focusing on how to protect free speech and democracy during contentious times.
- Nora was a panelist in the Broadband Breakfast discussion “Is TikTok Toast?” During the conversation, Nora noted that “singling out TikTok overlooks a broader invasive data-collection practice that we see across platforms.” Watch the discussion.
- Anshantia Oso took part in the Web Summit in Lisbon with a delegation of people focusing on the intersection between media, tech and gender justice.
- Jenna Ruddock presented her research on community resistance to data centers at the conference “Rethinking the Inevitability of AI” at the University of Virginia.
- Jenna took part in a six-week tech-justice working group with the Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. The group is building power to counter how AI, digital technologies and the concentration of power in the tech sector are impacting communities and workers.
- Jenna also helped lead the training “Know Your Rights for Protest & First Amendment Demonstrations” with the National Lawyers Guild. The training taught community members how to stay safe and assess their risks while protesting.
- Vanessa Maria Graber gave a guest lecture on reparative journalism for a class on journalism law and ethics at Temple University.
