NEWSFREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Background:

Tomorrow, December 1st, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be the first American Secretary of State to visit the Southeast Asian nation of Burma in 50 years. Her visit is a way for the United States to assess the sincerity of the Burmese military regime’s commitment to human rights and democracy -- including democratic elections and the release of Nobel Peace Laureate and pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

However, human rights activists want to be sure that Secretary Clinton will properly take advantage of this incredible opportunity and address the human rights violations that Burma is so widely known for.  Specifically, a Buddhist monk and Burmese political refugee named U Pyinya Zawta launched a campaign on Change.org calling on Secretary Clinton to push publicly for the unconditional release of all of Burma's political prisoners, including the venerable U Gambira, insist on an end to hostilities in Burma, and insist on changes to the 2008 flawed constitution.

The Situation
Al Jazeera English (AJE) is an internationally-acclaimed news network that broadcasts to over 250 million households in 120 countries on 6 continents, yet it is available in only 5 places in the entire U.S. (Washington, DC; Burlington, VT; Bristol County, RI: Toledo, OH; and New York City, NY).

We believe that democracies need information to flourish. In light of uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, floods in Central America, crashing markets throughout Europe, and political protests across the U.S., now--more than ever--we Americans demand to know what's going on around us, both at home and abroad.

The Solution
Right now, Comcast subscribers in only a few select cities have full cable access to Al Jazeera: Comcast’s customers in other regions don't. This needs to change. As one of the largest cable providers in the U.S., it is time for Comcast Cable to get with the program and provide all of its customers with full cable access to Al Jazeera English.

Your Role
Tweet at Comcast here asking the company to provide its customers with full cable access to Al Jazeera English. You can write your own message or copy and paste this:

@comcastcares I want Comcast to start providing full cable access to Al Jazeera English around the country. http://www.change.org/petitions/comcast-broadcast-al-jazeera-english-now @change.org

Finally, if you like getting involved in this type of action, you should sign up to be a Change.org Human Rights Hero. We’ll send you an email every now and then with an action designed to make one of the petitions here on Change.org have even greater impact. You can sign up to be a Human Rights Hero here.

The petition is sponsored by Rethink Press, a grassroots group that is working to raise awareness about the state of the journalism and media in the United States.

Photo Credit: Casadelosninos.org

When Harvard University student Tara Suri heard about the wrongful detention of Mahmoud Jabari, a young Palestinian journalist, 5,500 miles and 7 time zones away, she sprang into action. After gathering more than 1,700 petition signatures here on Change.org and involving allies like the International Press Institute, Mahmoud was freed.

Tara explained to me how it happened:

“I am a part of a global network of about sixty "Global Teen Leaders" through the We Are Family Foundation's Three Dot Dash Program, which is how I met Mahmoud back in 2008; we really consider each other family. One of the Global Teen Leaders had found out from a family member that Mahmoud had been detained and notified the group last Sunday. As soon as I found out, I knew we would all have to mobilize to make things happen, which is why we turned to rallying support through the petition, among other efforts. The week was an emotional rollercoaster in terms of the various pieces of information we received about his detainment.”