The Free Project names Julian Assange Person of the Year

In the past, the people we’ve named Person of the Year have been newsmakers in Greece. Assange’s case marks an exception, which we’ll try to explain. But for us to explain, we need to talk a bit about the founder of ThePressProject, Costas Efimeros, and the role that Assange played in making us what we are today.

Efimeros was very proud of his collaboration with Wikileaks. When he used to talk to students about journalism, he would say that all he wanted was for them to look up and learn about Assange.

It’s now been a century or so since the two sides of journalism—the two philosophies a journalist might choose from—were fully articulated.

The first is that journalism is a bridge between the ruling class and the ‘naïve’ citizens, the common people who need to be fed a version of the elite’s message that has been pre-chewed to make it go down more easily. The second position is that journalism is necessary for shining a light on what’s happening behind the scenes—for revealing corruption and criminality and checking power in the interest of the people.

Read full article in The Press Project