The Relief to Be Authentic

I'll Have Freedom to Deliver the News with the People’s Agenda

By Aliya Alwi
School for Authentic Journalism, Class of 2013

April 20, 2013

Dear Readers,

Here is why I think funding “The School of Authentic Journalism” is important. If you have been a frequent reader of Narco News then you must appreciate the “authentic” element.

This authenticity depends on a diverse funding base – readers like you who act to maintain and support it, all the while ensuring the integrity of the news source by preventing it from becoming the mouthpiece of a single funder.

As a journalist from Egypt, having worked in the state news agency for some time then with private international media. I quickly learned how money changes narrative. The news was dramatically different on State news than on private news, than on independent news sources.

It made me realize how important it is where the money is coming from and how it alters “reality”.

This brings me to the moment when I found out that I had been accepted to the School of Authentic Journalism. It was a feeling akin to relief, a big exhalation. Finally, I will have freedom to deliver the news with the people’s agenda.

To drive the point home, your funding will help journalists like me to attend this school and take away valuable knowledge. For example, this year’s school features lessons by Oscar Olivera on Bolivia’s Water Wars . Water is also a major battleground in Ecuador, my new country of residence. Water is also, along with land and the media, an area where major reforms are expected to take place.

This experience will help the coming generation of journalists on how to produce and publish the “real news” anywhere we choose to work.

If you believe in the work we do and the kind of stories we want to tell, donate to the Fund for Authentic Journalism.

You can make a donation right now, online, by clicking this link:
http://www.authenticjournalism.org

Or you can send a check to:
The Fund for Authentic Journalism
PO Box 1446
Easthampton, MA 01027 USA

Hugs and Peace for all,
Aliya Alwi
Class of 2013
School for Authentic Journalism

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