About

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The editor Ela Stapley, leads a network  of  correspondents in some of the most troubled spots around the world. Some of the most active correspondents write from Tibet, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Yemen and Iran, whether from inside these repressive regimes or from the relative safety of exile.

International reporting is diminishing at an alarming pace and these independent local journalists are filling the void left be departing foreign correspondents.

They operate in and around some of the world's most repressive places, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Iran, Burma, Tibet and Ethiopia. Some live in exile, having been branded "enemies of the state," others still publish while fearing the knock on the door from the security services. From behind bars, one Cuban journalist on our network delivers his blog in his weekly phone call to his wife.

Reporting from and about countries in conflict, where censorship is the norm, Unfree Media allows jailed, banned and silenced journalists, writers, scholars, bloggers and documentary-makers overcome publish and broadcast.   As the ranks of foreign correspondents shrink we give these skilled local journalists and writers a platform their governments seek to deny. 

They have become foreign correspondents on their own countries and by  allowing censored communicators to publish at will, unfreemedia.org frees them from the grip of state control of the media, pervasive in many parts of the world. This is a place where thoughtful communicators can write, report and broadcast freely, without government interference.

It's a bottom up service which aims to showcase the journalism, blogs, songs and poems, videos of banned and silenced communicators. There's also a busy news, comment and review service where we follow new cases of censorship. This is a new site and well worth keeping an eye on. Some of the best foreign stories may surface here first. You can follow us with a feed, through Facebook or Twitter and soon with email updates.

There's a top level international site and a growing number of regional and country-level sites, like Unfree Media Zimbabwe being added as required. These are run and maintained by local independent journalists, in English and in future in local languages. The journalists and editors post stories and blogs which are automatically cross-posted to the international site and the news feed.

As every foreign correspondent knows, local knowledge is everything. A well informed local journalist can be invaluable. This site aims to put these resources on tap for other media to draw on, while raising the profile of the local journalists facing repression and censorship.

There are far more silenced reporters, writers and bloggers than you would imagine. And, in many countries, those who fall foul of the authorities struggle to survive. In 2009, more than 1,000 journalists - many of them bloggers - were jailed worldwide. Numerous others were attacked and a large number killed.

Multi-year jail sentences are often handed out to terrorize the media in a number of countries. In a vein similar to domestic violence, the more you seek to open your eyes to it, the more cases of it you encounter.
China's Liu Xiaobo received an 11 year term on Christmas Day. Uzbekistan's well known filmmaker and photographer Umida Ahmedova may be sent to a work-camp when her trial concludes. Her crime? Producing a coffee table book with Swiss Embassy money, called "Women and men: from dawn till dusk". It "insults and slanders" the Uzbek people according to the Tashkent police investigator. 
All this is happening as the world's major news organizations shutter their foreign bureaus and drastically reduce travel allowances. (See Foreign Affairs Magazine's take on the downward spiral of foreign reporting in the January/February edition.)
Despite the cuts "stories still need to be told," as Bruce Shapiro, Director of the Dart Center on Journalism and Trauma says, "and why shouldn't thoughtful news professionals in so many parts of the world be the narrators of their own news?"
There are plenty around. For decades, a network of great local independent-minded journalists have been the invisible 'fixers' for the network and newspaper correspondents who came parachuting in from abroad. So many of these excellent independent-minded journalists are now banned from working by the state owned media in their respective countries.
Unfree media gives them a chance to break stories in their own names. If enough people take notice of their work, they may be able to avoid a hellish jail sentence. That's been the secret of Yoani Sanchez's survival. Cuba's famous blogger is published in about 35 languages and so far the authorities in Havana haven't dared lift a finger against her.
unfreemedia.org can help embattled journalists around the world in much the same way. The reporters just need to get online at unfreemedia.org or contact editor[at]unfreemedia.org.