Bernice Johnson Reagon, whose stirring gospel voice helped provide the soundtrack of the civil rights movement, then went on to become a cultural historian, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution and the founder of the womens a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, died on Tuesday in Washington. She was 81.

Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her daughter, Toshi Reagon, who did not give a cause.

Bernice Reagon, the daughter of a Baptist preacher in Albany, Ga., grew up in a church without a piano, and the first music she absorbed, rooted in spirituals and hymns, was performed by human voices to the accompaniment of clapping and foot stomping.

She was an original member in 1962 of the Freedom Singers, a vocal quartet that provided anthems of defiance for civil rights protesters preparing to confront the police or as they were hauled away to jail. The Freedom Singers were associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which sent them across the South as well as to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in 1963.

Ms. Reagon once wrote, I sang and heard the freedom songs and saw them pull together sections of the Black community at times when other means of communication were ineffective.

She went on to earn a doctorate in American history from Howard University in 1975 and to direct the Black American Culture Program at the Smithsonian. There, she amassed a collection of blues, gospel and spiritual music and presented that heritage to the public.

During one gospel music presentation, in the 1980s, Ms. Reagon encouraged the audience to hum and sing along with the performers. And if you cant do that, grunt or sigh a little, she instructed.

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Bernice Johnson Reagon, a Musical Voice for Civil Rights, Is Dead at 81 - The New York Times

(OLNEY) The Olney VFW will have its next Queen of Hearts drawing, all open to the public, at 4:00 this Sunday afternoon. The jackpot is now up to $6,451 if the winner is present and remember, the drawing is live-streamed on the VFW Post page on Facebook. Tickets are on sale right up until draw time at 4:00 Sunday, with the VFW Post doors opening at 1:00.

(OLNEY) The Calvary Baptist Church in Olney has a fundraising cookout tomorrow at the Rural King Store in Olney with serving from 10:00 to 2:00. Includes pork burgers and brats. The money raised with assist two young men attend Bible College this fall.

(OLNEY) If it runs, bring it out to tomorrow mornings Cruise In running from 7:00 to 12:00 noon at Eaglesons Automotive Center along South Whittle Avenue in Olney. The Olney Tiger Cheerleaders will have a bake sale. All are invited this Saturday morning.

(NEWTON) Its another Queen of Hearts drawing this Friday night at 6:30 at the American Legion Post 20 in Newton, with tickets on sale up until draw time, and a jackpot at $12,005. The Queens Menu includes all-you-can-eat hard and soft shell, beef or chicken tacos, for $10.00 per person, dine in only with serving at 5:00. All at 108 East Jourdan Street in Newton.

(OLNEY) A reminder that the Richland County Farmers Market will be set up today at the pavilion on the north side of the Olney City Park, due to the start of the Richland County Fair today, plus the Farmers Market will be on the north side of the City Park next week on Tuesday & Friday as well. Thats from 10:00 to 2:00 today with produce and more for sale.

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WHATS HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND - Freedom 92.9

Margate production team United Freedom Collective have shared their new Uhuru EP.

The studio triptych continually seek out new voices, with the core trio RobbieRedway,MathieuSeynaeveandWaiFungTsang inviting a plethora of talents into their Margate studio.

Out now, Uhuru the Swahili word for Freedom emphasises both their curatorial instincts, and their ability to shape-shift. The title song owes a debt to a session at SanturiStudiosin Nairobi with local rap artistClinchyRoyal; other guests include soulful singer Billy Blond, Manta, and the Institute Collective.

As a whole, the EP thrives on eclecticism, the dizzying array of ideas serving to reinforce United Freedom Collectives central ethos.

They all come from extremely different backgrounds, which makes for an eclectic and hopefully pleasing soup of sounds,declares Robbie.From a production angle, we were listening to a lot of Arthur Russell, Woo, Blake Mills, El Michels Affair and Young Fathers amongst others.

Tune in now.

Photo Credit:Samuel Glazebrook

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United Freedom Collective Share New Uhuru EP - Clash Magazine

(OLNEY) The 167th annual Richland County Fair will start today in the Olney City Park and run through all of next week. The fairs junior & 4-H general projects will be submitted today and the Farm Bureau Young Leaders having their Pedal Tractor Pull this afternoon with registration at 2:00 and pedaling at 3:00. The first of eight grandstand events will be tonight with the Truck Pulls at 7:00. Then tomorrow morning its the Youth Tractor Driving Contest at 9:00 and the popular Tractor Pulls Saturday night at 7:00. The 4-H Horse Show is at 8:00 Sunday morning, the Family Fun Day with blowups and more is Sunday afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00, and Gospel Music at the Park Bandshell Sunday night at 7:00. The Ag Experience is next Monday from 4:00 to 7:00 and the Queen Pageant Monday night at 7:00 with reserved seating and all the other remaining grandstand event each night through next Saturday. All tickets for grandstand events at $15 for adults and $5 for children age 12 and under. The livestock & 4-H shows all next week with the 4-H Master Showmanship next Thursday morning at 8:00 and the 4-H Livestock Auction Thursday afternoon at 3:00, plus carnival rides next Tuesday through Friday and all the great fair concessions every day and night. Learn more on the richlandcountyfair.org website or check the page on Facebook.

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RICHLAND COUNTY FAIR KICKS OFF THIS WEEKEND - Freedom 92.9

Notwithstanding the near-assassination of former President Trump, I could not help but find a bit of humor in the response of Republicans, Democrats, and mainstream-press commentators to the shooting the response that says that there is no room for political violence in American society.

Are they kidding? How can any reasonable person not guffaw at that statement? Ever since the U.S. government was converted into a national-security state form of government after World War II, perpetual political violence as well as the threat of political violence has formed the basis of Americas governmental system.

Its impossible to know exactly how many people that the U.S. government has killed in the last 75 years but it has to number in the millions. Thats nothing to scoff at. Thats a lot of dead people. When it comes to killing, there is no doubt that the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA have made America Number One.

Invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, undeclared wars, coups, state-sponsored assassinations, bombings, shootings, kidnappings, torture, indefinite detention, dark sites, Gitmo, inciting conflicts between other nations, alliances with and foreign aid to brutal regimes, the drug war, the war on immigrants, sanctions, embargoes, and more.

Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Iran, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Grenada, Congo, Chile, South America, the Cold War, Operation Condor, MKULTRA, Iraq 1, Afghanistan, Iraq 2, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, and much more. Everywhere one looks, one sees death. If we go back to the immediate prelude to the national-security state, we see Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And of course, its not just death. Its also injuries and maiming, oftentimes permanent. And then there is the massive destruction of peoples homes and businesses, along with the infrastructure of their countries.

Needless to say, most of the dead have been foreigners, whose lives are not considered to be as valuable as the lives of Americans. As long as American soldiers were not being sacrificed in large numbers, which tends to upset Americans, there has never been an upward limit on the number of foreigners who the Pentagon and the CIA could be permitted to kill, injure, maim, and destroy.

The idea the whole time has been that so long as the deaths are of people over there, the American people need not concern themselves or have to deal with their consciences here at home. Americans could continue living their normal lives, producing the wealth that could be taxed to continue funding the U.S. perpetual death machine over there.

But the notion was always flawed. When a nations government is engaged in perpetual killing, maiming, injuring, and destroying people and things over there, that was ultimately going to seep into the subconscious of people over here. The result is a massive dysfunctional society that is in large part infected by violence, not only by governmental officials but also by off-kilter Americans.

One might respond that the United States isnt killing any foreigners today. But of course it is. The Pentagon and the CIA are killing Russian soldiers en masse by using Ukrainian soldiers as their proxy. Sure, its not American soldiers who are dying but it is Ukrainian soldiers who are dying in what is clearly a Pentagon/CIA war against Russia. Massive death, suffering, and destruction in Ukraine and Russia at the hands of the U.S. death machine.

There are also the U.S. sanctions and embargoes that target innocent people with death, economic impoverishment, and starvation as a way to achieve political goals. North Korea, Russia, Iran, and Cuba come to mind.

Lets not forget that assassination is still a tool that the Pentagon and the CIA resort to when they consider it necessary. Its also worth recalling the recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court granting immunity to the president and implicitly the Pentagon and the CIA for state-sponsored assassinations of both Americans and foreigners.

Statists say that the problem is widespread gun ownership. Really? Then why arent there mass killings and assassinations in Switzerland, where gun ownership is widespread? Could the reason be that they dont live under a national-security state that has been wreaking death, maiming, injury, and destruction for 75 years?

If Americans want a normal society, there is a price to be paid for achieving it. That price includes the dismantling of the national-security state form of governmental structure and restoring the limited-government governmental structure on which our nation was founded. That necessarily would mean the dismantling of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA the triune god that so many Americans have come to worship and idolize, convinced that they are necessary to our safety and well-being.

A restoration of normalcy also requires the restoration of Americas founding foreign policy of non-intervention, which would mean no more invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, assassinations, kidnappings, alliances (including with brutal regimes), foreign aid, trade wars, sanctions, embargoes, and all other forms of foreign interventionism.

If we do these two things restore a limited-government republic and a foreign policy of non-interventionism we would go a long way toward restoring a free, peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous society to our land.

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Living with Perpetual Violence - The Future of Freedom Foundation

(OLNEY) The Richland County School Board of Education had its regular monthly meeting for July last night in Olney. The Board : approved the June financial report with the bill listing worth $1,660,216 : approved the Tax Abatement resolution with the Olney/Richland/ Newton/Jasper Enterprise Zone : approved a Student Cell Phone Policy for the High School & Middle School : approved two food service bids for the 2024-2025 school year to Prairie Farms for dairy products & to Wabash Food Service for bakery, food, & kitchen supplies : approved the Districts Educational Support Handbook for the new school year : heard an update on the Districts summer maintenance projects : reviewed the 21st CCLC Statewide Annual Evaluation for 2023-2024 : noted that student registration in the District continues through next Monday : and in personel accepted resignations from RCMS Special Ed Teacher Alicia Henning, from Bus Driver Zach Buchanan, and from RCES Custodian Becky Kocher employed Michelle Robinson & Dana Watson as RCES Custodians, Gavin Lathrop & Randall Thomas as RCHS Custodians, and Madilyn Brinkley as a Pre-K Teacher effective January 6th, 2025 and approved extra-curricular assignments for Tanner Piercefield as RCHS Girls Volleyball Freshman Coach and for Tristen Morris & Mike Gilreath as shared 50/50 RCHS Assistant Football Coaches : the Boards next regular meeting is August 15th.

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RICHLAND COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD JULY MEETING RECAP - Freedom 92.9

Santa Cruz native and local professional soccer star Walmer Martinez paid a special visit to Watsonville on Thursday morning to hang out with some potential talent of the future.

The Monterey Bay F.C. midfielder/forward spoke to a group of children who attended the annual Aztecas Youth Soccer Academy Program summer camp at Freedom Elementary School on July 18.

Its amazing to see the community out here, the resources and all the coaches that are providing the knowledge these kids need to be a good human being, Martinez said. These skills they are being provided, the technical training, physical training is amazing. I mean, Ive been here for 10 minutes and I can feel it its exciting.

Mateo Sepulveda, 8, said he just signed up for the camp this summer.

Im glad to be here, he said. There are good coaches here.

Martinez, 25, said these types of youth academies are what it takes to help children get to the next level, and move upwards into careers and education.

When I was growing up you would see good talented players once in a while, but now you see them everywhere, he said. There is so much talent in this area.

The former Soquel High, Cabrillo College and California State University Monterey Bay standout went on to tell the crowd how he grew up with a single mom and didnt know his father.

We were poor and there werent a lot of resourcesBut hard work really pays off, Martinez said. I worked hard and I got good grades, and you need discipline.

Also in attendance was Watsonville native Hugo Vargas-Rios, a Pajaro Valley High alum and Martinezs former teammate at CSUMB.

Ive known him since I was 12, Vargas-Rios said. We were in the same academy. Hes amazing and he cares about giving back and helping others.

According to a press release issued by the Aztecas, The camp is a great opportunity for youth between the ages of 6-14 to learn soccer skills and make new friends.

Soccer camp participants practice and play soccer under the guidance of Aztecas Camp college trainers who are top-level, competitive players and local high school all-stars. Campers are also taught about healthy lifestyles, sportsmanship, and teamwork during fun, intensive practices and games.

The camp is led by Santa Cruz County Probation Officer and Aptos High girls soccer head coach Gina Castaeda.

Aptos incoming senior Anahi Maciasa team captain on the Mariners girls soccer teamhas been a camp coach with the Aztecas for the past two years.

Its pretty cool that Walmer came out here today, Macias said. It definitely is a good way to motivate these people to work hard every day. These are crazy good athletes and all of us can learn something from them here today.

*additional reporting by sports editor Juan Reyes

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Local soccer pro Walmer Martinez visits annual Aztecas summer camp | Youth soccer - The Pajaronian

There are moments in life when the convictions of the spirit and personal consciousness collide in opposition to the mainstream, popular outcries for the blood, life and the end of the future existence of another human being. I refuse to be a silent witness to another lynching in America. Thus, the following is what I have observed and witnessed firsthand over the past days to the lynch mob-like escalation of calls for President Joe Biden to step down from campaigning for reelection in 2024. I am not representing any organization or political party. On the 4th of July 2024, while sitting quietly in Raleigh, North Carolina, I jotted down my personal views.

Although I am a proud Democrat, I am so saddened by the backstabbing cowardice of those who dare to publicly call for President Biden to step down while having an utter contradictory refusal to utter publicly any call for former President Donald Trump to step down and to end his fascist-engaging campaign to retake the White House. The question is why? The attempted political lynching of President Joe Biden has more to do with disingenuous political infighting than difficulties at a nationally televised political debate. What are the real motives from all of those who are calling for President Biden to step down?

Some will say that my words and expressions here are too strong and controversial. That may be true because there should be strong words and expressions that always should call out and condemn any form of lynching. A political lynching is also a crime against the oneness of our humanity. Such is the situation today in America. It is the politics of division versus the politics of unifying all Americans for the best interests and future of the nation that is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Equality is on the ballot. Equity is on the ballot. Freedom is on the ballot.

The antidote to the current resurgence of ignorance, racism, cowardice, fascism and retrenchment from freedom, justice, equality and equity is to work hard daily and diligently to ensure the largest voter turnout this year in American history. Why do I claim responsibility for urgently making this statement on July 4, 2024? African Americans, like others who fought and died in the fields and streets in the 13 American colonies during the Revolutionary War against the British Empire 248 years ago, have a birthright to the Declaration of Independence signed on July 4, 1776, and later to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Although thousands of people of African descent, who were not enslaved, enlisted and fought for freedom and independence against the British, no people of African descent were invited or permitted to attend the formative meetings of the newly emerging nations democracy and Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787. My great-great-great-great-grandfather, the Reverend John Chavis (1763-1838) fought as a young, enlisted soldier in the Revolutionary War against the British in our home state of North Carolina and in the state of Virginia. The Chavis family has lived in Granville County, N.C., for over 285 years. My father, Benjamin F. Chavis Sr. (1898-1965), enlisted and fought as a young sergeant major soldier in the United States Army in World War I.

The point here is that generations of African and African American soldiers have enlisted and fought and died to defend and protect the nation and democracy for the past 248 years. And we are not going to permit anyone or anything to deny our birthright to freedom and democracy. For us, the right to vote in America is blood-stained and sacred. We know from our lived experience the horror, pain, and suffering from centuries of physical lynchings in America to satisfy the sheer fear, hatred, white supremacy, and ignorance of racism. Today, we also know when mobs cry out for the downfall and political lynching of those who have been our allies in our long struggle for freedom, justice, voting rights, and equity, we cannot be silent.

It is ironic that also here in Raleigh, N.C., less than 24 hours after the questionable so-called debate in Atlanta, President Biden spoke eloquently and forcibly at the N.C. State Fairgrounds about a couple of miles away from the John Chavis Memorial Park in downtown Raleigh. President Biden stated, I know Im not a young man, to state the obvious, I dont walk as easy as I used to. I dont speak as smoothly as I used to. I dont debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know I know how to tell the truth.

The truth is therapeutic. Our nation needs more truth over the lies and prevalent fake news.

At the same time, as the calls for President Biden to step down, the United States Supreme Court has now ruled that future and past presidential official acts of violence, crime, repression, voter suppression, and insurrection are all immune from prosecution as long those acts are official acts within the core responsibilities of a President of the United States. This is dangerous and fundamentally against the meaning and principles of democracy. That is why now, more than ever before, we must raise our voices and mobilize our families and communities to go out and vote in record numbers in the Swing States and in every other state across the nation. We all have work to do. We said back in the 1960s civil rights movement, When things get tough in our struggle for freedom, we have to become tougher.

Join me and raise your voice with me. Lets vote in record numbers throughout America. Stop the lynching of President Joe Biden.

Chavis is president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA).

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CHAVIS: Stop the Lynching of President Joe Biden - The Washington Informer

I was a few minutes into my talk at FreedomFest when former President Trump was almost assassinated. It was ironic because my talk was about the U.S. national-security establishments assassination of President Kennedy. While my talk specifically focused on the CIAs production of a fraudulent copy of the famous film of the assassination by Dallas businessman Abraham Zapruder (the subject of my book An Encounter with Evil), I ended it by emphasizing why the JFK assassination is so relevant today we still have the national-security state form of governmental structure that existed in November 1963, which succeeded in taking out Kennedy and replacing him with Lyndon Johnson. The national-security state is a great big problem that America still faces.

Its tempting for someone to think that if only Trump werent running for president again, everything would be fine. Of course, the same sentiment applies to President Biden. But even if Biden and Trump were to drop out of the race for illness or some other reason, it wouldnt solve anything. Thats because Americas problems are not rooted in the wrong people being in public office. Instead, Americas problems are systemic that is, they are rooted in the welfare-state, regulated-society, national-security-state system that Americans adopted in the 20th century and that todays Americans, unfortunately, choose to continue, hoping that they can just elect better people to public office to manage it.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Decade after decade, this statist way of life has gradually destroyed the liberty, privacy, and well-being of the American people. It is as though Americans are enveloped by a great big statist device that is incessantly being tightened by a gigantic screw. With each turn of the screw, Americans lose more of their liberty, privacy, and well-being.

Moreover, with each turn of the screw, America turns more dysfunctional, especially given that so many Americans are convinced that they live in a genuinely free society. Thank God Im an American because at least I know Im free is a common mindset among the American populace, a mindset that is ingrained in every child who is subjected to the states educational system. As any psychiatrist will tell you, denial of reality can produce very serious psychoses.

With each turn of the screw, aberrant things happen, especially among the off-kilter people in society. Most notable are the periodic mass killings. Somehow the tightening of the screw causes some people to go haywire and drives them to commit copycat killings that mirror mass killings committed against foreigners by the U.S. national-security state.

Assuming that the attempted assassination of Trump was not an effort by the deep state to get rid of him, as with JFK, and instead was the act of what will be called a lone nut, the lone nuts mindset is really no different from that of the average anti-Trump person that is, the need to prevent Trump from being reelected because he will be a grave danger to our nation.

But what these people fail to understand is that even if it isnt Trump who is president or even if it isnt Biden it will still be someone who will wield the omnipotent power to continue tightening the gigantic statist screw that destroys our liberty, privacy, and well-being.

A loosening of the screw would no doubt alleviate the problem but thats not the ultimate solution to Americas woes. The ultimate solution is a complete dismantling of the welfare-state, regulated-society, national-security-state system under which we live one that comes with that gigantic screw that produces highly aberrant and destructive behavior. The ultimate solution to our nations woes is the restoration of our founding system of a free-market, voluntary-charity, limited-government way of life, one in which there is no screw at all.

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Assassination Accomplishes Nothing - The Future of Freedom Foundation

Every year, Japans poor press freedom ranking triggers handwringing and defensiveness in equal measure. The countrys 2024 ranking of 70 out of 180 countries in the annual index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) should alarm Japanese citizens, said veteran politician Ichiro Ozawa, who noted that Japan has experienced incredible democratic backsliding.

Not so, countered the right wing news website Japan Forward. Despite being called an index, the RSF study has little to do with scientifically gathered intelligence. The critique questioned why the survey ranked Malta, which was deemed responsible for the 2017 murder of investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia, higher than famously safe Japan. Other RSF critics have also noted that there is no appreciable violence against journalists in Japan.

Japans highest RSF ranking of 11, scored in 2010, was an anomaly. For most of the previous two decades since the early 2000s, Japan hovered in the twenties to forties, falling to its lowest of 51 in 2008. The defeat of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2009 created expectations that its more liberal rival, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) would challenge or scrap the press club system, which rewards establishment journalists with monopolistic access to sources and discourages and sometimes even punishes independent critical reporting.

The press club system survived and remains a key reason for Japans perennially low ranking. The DPJs handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster further damaged public confidence in journalism. Much of the mainstream news parroted the official line that Japans leaking reactors were safe and journalists avoided the term meltdown for two months, insisting that partial fuel melt was suspected.

When the LDP retook power in December 2012, it turned its attention to the liberal media. Former prime minister Shinzo Abe installed four conservatives to the 12-member board of public service broadcaster NHK. The LDP also demanded political impartiality from television bosses in 2014. In 2016, then-communications minister Sanae Takaichi threatened to close television stations that flouted rules on impartiality amid a major political row about the near simultaneous departure of three liberal TV anchors.

The controversy over Abes arm-twisting of the media peaked in 2016 when UN Rapporteur David Kaye warned of serious threats to Japans media, highlighting self-censorship, declining media independence and a lack of professional solidarity among media organisations. After interviewing approximately 100 journalists and editors, Kaye found that a significant number of journalists feel intense pressure from the government to conform their reporting to official policy preferences. The official reaction to Kayes report was defensive. Koichi Hagiuda, then-deputy chief cabinet secretary, argued that Kayes findings were based on hearsay.

Yet both Kaye and the RSF have identified structural weaknesses in the Japanese media long bemoaned by domestic critics. One of the biggest news stories in Japan since 2023 has been the admission by the countrys most powerful talent agency that its founder and boss was a serial paedophile. A report published in August 2023 concluded that pop artist Svengali Johnny Kitagawa had repeatedly sexually assaulted young men for almost 50 years.

In the 1980s and 1990s, several of Kitagawas former trainees publicly accused him of sexual assault. In 1999, a weekly magazine published startling accusations by 12 of his former trainees which led to global media coverage and questioning in Japans parliament. But there was little follow up by Japans newspapers and television companies, which relied on the publicity generated by the actors, singers and dancers provided by Kitagawas agency, Johnny & Associates, even after Kitagawa sued and lost a court battle over the magazines claims.

The latest RSF report nods to the reason why Kitagawas actions were enabled by a lack of media accountability. While violence against journalists is almost unheard of in Japan and media freedom is generally respected, business interests often prevent journalists from fulfilling their role as watchdogs. A major disincentive to investigating Kitagawas misdeeds was the commercial interdependence of television with his agency.

The Kitagawa story was nudged into the mainstream by Shukan Bunshun, a weekly tabloid that was shut out of the establishment. But even after publishing multiple interviews with Kitagawas victims, Shukan Bunshun journalists knew there was little chance that the Japanese press would report the issue. A BBC documentary, which interviewed some of the same victims, further weakened the code of silence around Kitagawa. A probe by a team of independent investigators eventually concluded in August 2023 that the company had covered up decades of abuse, despite there being many opportunities to take action, according to the teams leader Makoto Hayashi.

Bunshuns work showed that the media in Japan can be diverse and lively. But self-censorship is rife and taboos linger over swathes of public life. Journalists are encouraged to collude with official sources and shun independent lines of enquiry, leaving many issues including the imperial family, war crimes and the death penalty poorly covered or out of bounds. Social media is used to bash critics, manipulate public opinion and amplify right wing topics. It seems likely that Japan will continue to score badly in media freedom rankings.

David McNeill is Professor of Communications and English at the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, and co-chair of the Foreign Correspondents Club Japans Freedom of the Press Committee.

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Politics puppeteers Japans press freedom - East Asia Forum

Woodward claims that city council members violated her freedom of speech and, in doing so, interfered with the mayoral election.

SPOKANE, Wash. Former Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward filed a claim for damages with the City Attorney Thursday stating the majority of the city council violated her free speech and interfered with the election.

In the claim, obtained by KREM 2 News through a public records request, Woodward said, A four member majority of the Spokane City council, in violation of the state and federal constitutions, 'condemned' speech by Woodward which speech is protected by the state and federal constitutions. The City Council did so with the intent of interfering with the then-upcoming mayoral election and promoting the candidacy of Woodward's opponent.

Woodward names Betsy Wilkerson, Zack Zappone, Lori Kinnear and Karen Stratton as individuals involved in the incident.

Woodwards claim is looking for loss of mayoral salary, health and retirement benefits and pain and suffering from reputational harm.

When asked for who has more information on the claim, Woodward wrote, Entire City Attorneys Office and most citizens of Spokane.

The controversy stemmed from video of Woodward appearing at Let Us Worship, a prayer rally with Christian nationalism connotations, on Aug. 20, 2023. Woodward joined Matt Shea on stage for prayer. Shea is a former Washington state representative who was expelled from the State Republican Caucus after an independent investigation found he committed acts of domestic terrorism. Shea founded On Fire Ministries, a religious group criticized for extremism.

The council formally denounced Woodward in a meeting in September 2023.

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Former Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward says city council violated her freedom of speech, interfered with mayoral election - KREM.com

In Spring 2024, a delegation from the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) conducted a press freedom fact-finding mission to Tbilisi, Georgia as part of a project funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Throughout the mission, ECPMF met with Georgian journalists and media workers, journalists working in exile in Tbilisi, NGOs, activists, political figures, the National Communications Commission, and the office of the Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia.

Today, ECPMF publishes a report detailing the findings of the mission, which paint a picture of independent media in the midst of an existential crisis.

The mission delegation heard concerns about physical attacks, a lack of sustainable funding for independent media, government targeting of donor organisations, severely restricted access to public information, the use of vexatious lawsuits to target journalists, the exodus of educated media workers in search of a better standard of living, and numerous threats facing exiled journalists working in the country namely those from Russia and Belarus. These issues, coupled with the worrying reintroduction of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence in April 2024 and a proposed series of bills outlawing LGTBQI propaganda, present a distinctly bleak image for media freedom in Georgia. Despite this, a sizeable group of committed, independent journalists often working for online media continue to withstand the pressure and provide vital information in order to hold power to account in Georgia and across the wider southern Caucasus region. Months of mass protests against the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence further illustrate a broad public rejection of government initiatives to undermine democracy and a free press, as well as a desire to bring Georgia towards European integration, despite waves of violence and intimidation against protestors.

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Georgia: A crisis point for press freedom - European Centre for Press and Media Freedom