Problem

More than 80 percent of people live in countries without a free press. That means more than 5 billion people can't trust what they read in the newspaper, hear on the radio or see on TV.

The Gift

Your gift will go into our loan pool to help independent journalists buy printing presses and broadcasting equipment. In eastern Russia, the state monopoly printing house tried to force the independent daily Yakutsk Vecherny out of business by charging inflated prices and banning issues that criticized the authorities. When it finally refused to print the newspaper at all, and with the next printing house more than 1,000km away, Yakutsk Vecherny purchased its own press, securing reliable high-quality printing of the paper and breaking the authorities’ control over what information could be published. Your gift will keep the newspaper presses rolling and radio and TV stations on air, helping leading journalists provide the objective news the public needs to know.