The Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which I'm a board member, has reached a fundraising milestone: $200K in 6 weeks to support independent transparency journalism.
From my fellow board member John Cusack, via the Huffington Post, re-posted with permission:
When we launched Freedom of the Press Foundation — a new organization dedicated to supporting the 1st Amendment and journalism that focuses on transparency and accountability in government — a little over six weeks ago, we knew the need was there. President Obama had come into office promising to "create an unprecedented level of openness in Government," "establish a system of transparency," and most famously, become "the most transparent administration in history."
But now at the start of his second term, government secrecy is at an all time high, and officials who leak information to the press are routinely being intimidated, and whistleblowers are being prosecuted at a record rate. In fact, the current administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than the rest of the Presidents combined. These facts speak for themselves –it was more important than ever to stand up for this country's long tradition of a free press.
But the question was: would people donate?
Well, after six weeks the answer is clear: over 1,900 people donated close to $200,000 to support important transparency journalism organizations like WikiLeaks, MuckRock, National Security Archive, and The UpTake.
The group is also on Facebook.
If you choose to donate, there's a cool "slider" feature that allows you to specify exactly what portion of your donation goes to each of the organizations included in each selected "bundle."
