By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
We celebrate the beginning of the ninth year of Censored News!
In 2006, after being censored, then terminated, as a staff writer for Indian Country Today, I began Censored News to expose what is being censored, and as a platform for grassroots Indigenous Peoples. It was launched at the Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas on Tohono O'odham land.
Mohawks at the Border Summits in 2006 and 2007 -- outraged at the US cages, spy towers and abuse of Indigenous migrants on Tohono O'odham land -- were among the first strong voices, and an integral part, of Censored News.
Now, with 3.5 million pageviews, 6,198 posts -- all without advertising, grants or sponsors -- Censored News celebrates the road that brought us here.
The most viewed articles begin with the top all-time post: Bolivia's Rights of Nature, followed by articles of Lakota and Dakota resistance. The top articles include: Lakotas arrested while halting TransCanada tarsands megaloads; Wounded Knee photos; Lakota and Dakota protesting white supremacists in North Dakota; and a Lakota hospital patient who found KKK carved into his skin.
Oil and gas drilling and fracking also top the most read articles, from the resistance in New Brunswick, Canada, to the crime and destruction resulting from drilling on Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara land in North Dakota. In the top ten most viewed articles is the blacklisting and censorship of Native American and Chicano books by Tucson Unified School District. These top 10 articles were viewed by more than 150,000 people and published here, on this free blog with no advertising.
Our live coverage has taken us across North America, from the border of Mexico and Guatemala in the Zapatista stronghold in the south, to gatherings with the Zapatistas in Sonora in the north of Mexico.
Along with Govinda at Earthcycles, Censored News cohosted the five-month live Long Talk Radio, on the Earthcycles bus on Long Walk 2 northern route in 2008. The voices of Native youth walkers, traditional elders, and the people we met along the way are recorded for future generations: Pomo, Paiute, Shoshone, Dine', Ute, Anishinaabe, Lakota, Arapaho, Mohawk, Choctaw, Yaqui, Maori and more.
This road also led us to other live broadcasts in the homelands of the Supai, Pueblos, Western Shoshone, Crow, and Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. We also broadcast live from AIM West in San Francisco, O'odham Voice against the Wall; Indigenous Alliance without Borders in Tucson, the Peltier Indigenous Rights Tribunal in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and at climate summits in Cancun, Mexico and Cochabamba, Bolivia.
The courage of Native youths continues to inspire us all, including Indigenous Action Media and Outta Your Backpack media in Flagstaff, Arizona; Lakota youths at Owe Aku International; First Nations youths across Canada, and those throughout the Americas and the world.
There are still exclusive articles to be discovered. There is a rare interview about the remains of Geronimo and the Bush family's involvement with the Skull and Bones Society. There are exclusive photos of US spy towers on Tohono O'odham land, and other articles about the Israeli defense contractor Elbit that now has the US contract for those border spy towers. There is the leaked document of the former US Secretary of Interior while he was trying to steal Navajo and Hopi water rights.
The other media is ignoring this fact: The owners of the Indian news website www.indianz.com received an $80 million spy contract this year. Ho Chunk., Inc. of Nebraska, now has an office at the Pentagon for domestic and international spying.
Censored News now has French and Dutch translators in Europe. Thank you Christine Prat in France and Alice Holemans at the publication NAIS. We now have readers around the world, with Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Turkey, Romania, Poland and China topping the list. A special thanks goes out to Paul Rafferty at the UN Observer and International Report at the Hague who published censored news from Indian country when no one else would. We hope there will be a way for Paul to begin publishing again.
Thanks to each of you who shared your voice and stories, your photos and videos. A sincere thanks to each of you who offer encouragement for Censored News to continue.
Today, Censored News still has no advertising, grants or sponsors. What we do have is friends.
While cyber plagiarism has become an infection in national Indian country news, and deception and spin are the standard in the collapsed mainstream media, we continue searching out the truth and struggling to deliver authentic journalism.
Thank you our readers and contributors who speak and take action with honor and dignity.
--Brenda brendanorrell@gmail.com
MORE
Listen to Earthcycles audios from the road www.earthcycles.net
Censored News maintains a boycott of Indian Country Today due to censorship and plagiarism.
Native Americans and First Nations censored by Indian Country Today 2004 -- 2006, include Buffy Sainte Marie, Louise Benally and Bahe Katenay of Big Mountain, Lenny Foster on Peliter and more:
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/
Censored News Blogtalk Radio: Listen to Charlie Hill, Oneida, Louise Benally, Dine', Debra White Plume, Lakota, American Indian Movement and the Best of Long Walk 2 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brenda-norrell
Please share our link for this article (found in your browser)
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/10/censored-news-begins-9th-year.html
Search for Censored News articles using Google search: Type in 'Censored News' and the issue or article name. www.google.com
No comments:
Post a Comment