Freedom at Issue:

by Arch Puddington and Morgan Huston*

The Reverend Leon H. Sullivan is remembered today as one of the most respected leaders of the American civil rights movement. For many decades, he served as pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia, a northern city with a reputation for hostility to racial change. From early on, Sullivan identified lack of economic opportunity as a crucial element of racial inequality. Thus among his first campaigns was an economic boycott directed at major corporations in Philadelphia that refused to interview young black job applicants. “Selective patronage,” Sullivan called it.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press.

A version of this commentary was initially published in the San Diego Union Tribune on August 10:

Freedom of the press is one of the pillars of democracy, but an unrestricted media is no longer a reality south of our border. In Mexico, journalists increasingly have to decide between ignoring the violent drug cartels altogether, or putting their safety and that of their families at risk. It is a choice no reporter would envy and none should be required to make.

A recent study conducted by Freedom House and the Broadcasting Board of Governors evaluated a comprehensive range of mobile technologies—from smartphone devices including iPhone, Nokia, and Droid, to the applications and security protocols that are installed on them—to determine how secure one can really be on a mobile phone. The purpose of the effort was to assess the dangers of using mobile phones in countries where privacy rights are not respected, and where the rule of law and due process are faulty or nonexistent. Mobile phones, rather than internet-enabled computers, are often the communications method of choice in these countries, which makes them a top priority for government surveillance. The findings of the study were quite worrying.

In this two-part interview, Nancy Okail, the director of Freedom House’s Egypt office, discusses the state of Egypt’s transition to democracy in the wake of parliamentary and presidential elections earlier this year.