Name: Tatsuya King

Social Justice Group: Freedom of the Press

Date of Fieldwork: November 30, 2018

Name of Organization: CJA/ACLU

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Farah Brelvi

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

For our fieldwork, we had a skype call with Farah Brelvi to talk about the different complications and areas of interest in freedom of press laws and lack of laws in the U.S. and other countries. We also discussed different times where people debated over freedom of press and speech laws.

What I learned:

I learned that the ACLU has no political affiliation and that they fight for freedom of the press and freedom of speech against the government no matter who they are fighting for. I also learned that there is some controversy about which cases the ACLU takes and whether or not they should focus on certain cases as well as some cases in other countries relating to this topic. Another one of the main things that I learned from this interview is that the 1st amendment applies to the government and that a private school or business can apply certain restrictions to its students or faculty.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned a lot about how groups like CJA and the ACLU fight for the 1st Amendment. They have to prepare a lot and make detailed cases that they will use to argue against the government. I also learned how other countries use fear to try and limit freedom of the press and how these fear tactics are usually very extreme. Another very important thing that I learned about through this interview is that if you have a policy about the 1st amendment, it is very hard to make exceptions based on political beliefs and that you have to do the same thing for everyone.