Civil Weekly Newsletter: 2/15/2019 Edition

“I’m going to hold my government accountable.” A Q&A with Maria Ressa, founder of Rappler — Civil’s newest newsroom.

Two weeks ago, Civil Foundation CEO Vivian Schiller sat down for a Q&A with Maria Ressa in New York City. Maria is the founder of Rappler, one of the largest independent Filipino news organizations — and the latest newsroom to officially join the Civil network.

We’re deeply honored to see the Rappler join Civil’s ranks, and had originally intended to publish this interview as part of a broader announcement. Earlier this week, Maria was arrested by her government for the second time in three months, on spurious “cyber libel” charges. She’s since been freed on bail, but still faces a potential 12-year prison sentence. In light of this, we decided to share her conversation — which focuses on her ongoing persecution at the hands of her own government — this week.

Civil stands with Maria, Rappler and journalists around the world who are targeted by powerful individuals and organizations simply for doing their jobs, and holding people accountable for their actions. If you want to directly support Maria’s cause, we recommend the Press Freedom Defense Fund.

Popula launches crypto-tipping!

Kudos to Popula for successfully rolling out an ETH-based tipping system this week. Here’s Maria Bustillos with more detail on how it works — and why she’s so excited for its potential as a new way to help support journalists.

As Maria puts it:

From a practical business perspective, though, institutional, corporate and even political pressures have grown so huge for independent publishers that a sustainable business model for the kind of work we are doing seems almost out of reach. However, we believe that aiming for sustainability rather than growth, and encouraging individual readers to support Popula — and through us, new models that other publications can benefit from — is a worthwhile and viable idea.

Soon, anyone in the world will be able to support Civil newsrooms in this peer-to-peer fashion via either ETH or Civil tokens in addition to the standard payment methods available today.

Here’s what Civil Newsrooms covered this week.

• A building that used to be an elementary school in uptown Chicago is becoming luxury housing. Block Club Chicago explores how the neighborhood has changed, including what part gentrification has played in its transition.
• Though U.S. Senators are reviewing a resolution that would establish an ambitious “Green New Deal,” the seven Senate members deliberating over the deal may own as much as $2.4 million worth of stock in companies tied to fossil fuels. Sludge has the full report.
• “If you’ve been to rehab once, there’s no reason for you to go again. It’s supposed to work the first time around.” In this week’s The Small Bow, we learn some alternatives for people who are considering going to rehab for a second… or third… or fourth time.
• Sometimes you get a job, and it’s just a job. It’s not your career, it’s not your passion, but it’s a job nonetheless. Hmm Daily has advice for time management and working when your job is “just work.”
• On New York State farms, about half of the labor force is undocumented. The state’s top agriculture officials are worried that increased immigration enforcement by ICE could mean trouble for these farms. The River has more specifics — with the full story coming soon.
• In late January, a mother fell to her death on the NYC subway stairs. FAQ NYC spoke to transportation engineer and advocate Christopher Pangilinan about what it’s like to depend on — and the dangers of — a transportation system without elevator access.
• European Parliament debated and voted on the use of medical cannabis this week. And on Wednesday, they approved the motion for a resolution on medicinal cannabis. Cannabis Wire laid out the state of the motion after the decision was made.
• It’s become popular to post photos of food on social media — but Taiwan takes it to an extreme. Popula offers a fascinating snapshot into Taiwanese culture through its regional cuisines.
• In the newest episode of ZigZag, Manoush and Jen cover the highs (and the lows) of start-ups — plus, they hear about Coinmint’s cavernous Bitcoin factory located in a shipping container.

Civil en Español

• Cuba acusa a EE UU de mover tropas para preparar una acción militar en Venezuela. Lea más en 14ymedio.

Documented Semanal es un boletín en español distribuido por WhatsApp que sale todos los jueves. Documented Semanal resume las noticias de inmigración más importantes de la semana, curadas por reporteros documentados, con un ojo en lo que más importa para los neoyorquinos que hablan español. Diríjase aquí para registrarse.

If you’re Asia-based, consider attending Splice Beta from May 1–3. We need to celebrate media startups — and Splice is the organization that’s putting on an event for the industry to embrace them. Read more about the event here.

Interested in starting your own Civil Newsroom? Learn how you can join the Civil community. Or, for a daily feed from Civil Newsrooms, follow @CivilStories on Twitter.

Vivian Schiller interviews Jill Abramson about her new book: Tune in at 9 PM ET this Saturday night.

This Saturday, February 16, CSPAN2’s Book TV will be airing an interview with Jill Abramson, former executive editor and author of the just-released Merchants of Truth. Civil Foundation CEO Vivian Schiller conducted the interview, and addressed the plagiarism controversy that has engulfed the book since its release.

Here’s a preview of their conversation; the full interview will air on CSPAN2 (for those in the U.S.) at 9 PM ET, and will be available online afterwards.

The Random Musing Section

What is happening to Maria Ressa is appalling, and should serve as an urgent wake-up call to anybody who doesn’t believe that journalism is facing an existential threat worldwide. That such a widely respected and proven journalist, who graced the cover of TIME Magazine as one of its People of the Year less than two months ago, can be so brazenly and blatantly targeted by her own government, simply for doing her job, is beyond alarming.

The videos of her arrest, which occurred in the middle of Rappler’s newsroom, during the workday, are surreal. In them, journalists are actively threatened by plain-clothes security officers (“…if we see our faces on the net, you’ll be sorry. You’ve been warned. We’ll go after you.”).

This comes at a time when “fake news!” is being weaponized as a rallying cry around the world by regimes that are hostile to honest journalists who are simply trying to report the truth. It is absolutely critical that we continue the conversation about journalism’s role in free, self-governing societies, and the fact that it’s facing unprecedented hostility from those in positions of power. It’s telling that Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte, no doubt recognizing the waves of backlash his government faced after Maria’s arrest, quickly tried to separate himself from the issue when asked about it this week.

He and others like him need to know that we’re listening and watching — and that we support journalists like Maria that exist to keep them in check.


— Matt Coolidge