Meet the Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network:
Defending Media and Political Expression
Fri., July 11 from 7-9 PM Eastern / 4-6 PM Pacific
On Zoom
You are cordially invited to a Zoom-based introduction to the Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network on Friday, July 11 from 7:00-9:00 PM Eastern time / 4:00-6:00 PM Pacific Time. Please registerhere. In the first hour, after explaining our purpose, history, and plans, we’ll invite all of you in our larger media and activist communities to talk about how you might want to get involved and contribute your ideas. During the second hour (8-9 PM), we plan to show a new film called Gaza Journalists Under Fire, released by Brave New Films.
We are an ad hoc group of Pacifica Radio program producers and other community media advocates who have been meeting since January via Zoom to define a strategy and structure to take on the attacks on press freedom and political expression by the Trump Administration and its allies. Pacifica Radio is specifically named in Project 2025 as a target for license revocation and tax-exempt status assaults, as are NPR and PBS,
because of their member stations airing dissident views. The MAGA forces have targeted media platforms where liberal, progressive, and anti-racist voices share information (newspapers, radio, television, college, and the growing prison press). We’re also outraged by the vicious attacks in this country on political speech that denounces the genocide of Palestinians. That includes the arrests and deportations of people exercising political speech, both among immigrants and citizens. There’s also been an alarming increase in physical attacks against journalists, including killings, most egregiously and in large numbers in Gaza, and also through the use of “non-lethal” but actually injury-producing projectiles in the recent L.A. protests against ICE, used against journalists and activists alike. These are examples of the types of repression we will speak out against.
Our tentative draft Statement of Purpose is here. We take our name from Ida B. Wells, the fearless Black journalist and anti-lynching crusader who exposed the machinery of white supremacy with unflinching truth. We are working on a public Pledge of Resistance to defend dissent, resist censorship, and build a culture of solidarity, truth-telling, and protection for those who use media as a tool for justice. More to come….
Our next public activity after this week’s introduction will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom teach-in/forum some time in August to provide education about these issues and help build the Rapid Response Network and the Pledge of Resistance for press freedom and freedom of political expression for those advocating for justice.
So please join us this Friday. We welcome your input and ideas, and any way you can step forward to share your skills, whether you have time to consistently attend meetings or not. For more information, email mediadefense6@gmail.com .
Moving forward with determination,
The Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network