Name: Juno Walker

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Freedom of the Press

Date of Fieldwork: November 30, 2018

Name of Organization: ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)

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

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

For this interview, we got in touch with Farah Brelvi. A lawyer for the ACLU and CJA via Skype. We asked her questions about her work and opinions about Freedom of the Press in the United States recently as well as past cases that the ACLU has worked on.

What I learned:

I learned that Freedom of Speech in America can be ignored depending on what the public knows. Farah told us about Marie Colvin, a journalist for the Sunday Times who would broadcast videos from Syria to other journalists. The Syrian government found out and killed her by bombing a building she was in. They claimed she was spreading fake news and that they had to kill her to stop her from spreading lies. Afterword no one was punished for her death. Even though she was spreading the news primarily to countries with Freedom of the Press, the Syrian government found a loophole and was able to get away with her death.
Farah used this and connected it to school journalists talking about how private schools have the right to limit what’s released to the school, while public schools can’t because of their connection to the government. She talked about how there are many loopholes like that in the First Amendment. While we all have freedom of speech, there are still ways people can limit it. Siting a couple other cases of it including how Trump calls many news stations fake news and turning the public against those news stations. She led that into how claiming things that are true false is almost just as bad as keeping people oblivious to it.

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

Through this fieldwork, I more about what rights the first amendment gives and how the ACLU fights to protect that. Farah herself said that some of the cases the ACLU has defended depend very strongly on the first amendment and while she believes in that, there are cases where they should balance the options with other amendments. I also learned about how easy it can be for governments to lie to the public.