News & Updates
We support a Christmas cease-fire in Ukraine
More than 1,000 faith leaders in the United States have called for a Christmas truce in Ukraine, 10 months following Russia's invasion. Their statement says: "As people of faith and conscience, believing in the sanctity of all life on this planet, we call for a...
30th Anniversary of UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Program
This November 3rd and 4th, UNESCO convened a 30th-anniversary celebration of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Program to celebrate three decades of accomplishments. The event's theme, “Transforming knowledge for just and sustainable futures," reflects the cross-sectoral,...
Executive Director of Article 19, Quinn McKew, on Elon Musk, Twitter and the EU’s new Digital Services Act
by Noah Camuso “When every major freedom of expression organization is telling you that you don't know what you're talking about, maybe pause a little bit to listen” Within the past week, the European Union reached a historic agreement to create the Digital Services...
International free speech rapporteurs launch the 2022 Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Gender Justice
by Noah Camuso A 2020 UNESCO study on online violence against women journalists reported that 73% of women respondents said they had experienced online violence. Nearly a third (30%) of respondents said that they reacted to online violence by self-censoring on social...
Access Now: Protecting Journalists from Digital Threats
by Karl FurlongPunta del Este, Uruguay – Digital threats against journalists are on the rise around the world, an issue being explored in depth this week at a global event hosted in Uruguay as part of UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day (WPFD)Sitting behind a small desk...
The Elijah Interfaith Summer School and Interreligious Leadership Seminar 2022: Return to Jerusalem
The Elijah Interfaith Summer School and Interreligious Leadership Seminar 2022: Return to Jerusalem We are returning to Jerusalem and you, too, are invited to return to Jerusalem with us. Following a two-year break from Jerusalem, when our summer school program only...
‘I just couldn’t be a part of these platforms when their whole revenue is based upon people like me getting chewed up and spit out’: Trans father and activist on online harassment
by Noah Camuso audio transcript: Amid the back-and-forth acquisition of Twitter by “Free Speech Absolutist,” Elon Musk, The Pew Research Center conducted a survey on American support for regulating tech companies. They found that support for regulating tech...
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and its implications on Journalism
by Karl Furlong In 2014 The Los Angeles Times created an algorithm to generate a story after an earthquake. The tool, Quakebot, brought AI into the company’s newsroom. By pulling data from the US Geological Survey and other trusted sources, the computer algorithm is...
New fund aims to increase Media Viability in developing markets
The venture was announced on World Press Freedom Day, explicitly linking media freedom and media viability by Mac Larsen In honor of World Press Freedom Day 2022, the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) announced the first round of funding for public...
How Newsrooms and Tech Companies are Combatting Online Violence Against Women Journalists
by Hevenn Vanhelsdingen As digital attacks become more frequent, female journalists are increasingly exposed to online sexual assault and personal information leakages. These attacks are a threat to women’s rights and to democracy because smear campaigns and other...
Religion, Russia, Ukraine: Panel Discussion
An awareness of the deeply religious dimension of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is totally missing in the Western media's otherwise impressive, and often brave, coverage of this ongoing tragedy, which is incomprehensible in reductively political/secular terms. This...
Child-labor’s frightening growth during the war in Yemen
Child-labor's frightening growth during the war in Yemen by Ahmed Aldali and Abdusalam Almassajdi Sana'a, Yemen November, 5 2021 (Translated from the Arabic by University of Oregon Professor David Hollenberg, January 17, 2022. The children's surnames are...
COVID VACCINES A “GLOBAL PUBLIC GOOD”
UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) has recently declared COVID-19 vaccines to be "a global public good." The pandemic is a global phenomenon and can only be approached, and ameliorated, from a global perspective. No nation...
The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky
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The Gambler Wife: A Dostoevsky Talk
The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky. Andrew D. Kaufman Warmest salutations to our friends nearby and around the world, We had the great honor of hosting a talk sponsored by the UNESCO/UNITWIN Crossing Institute, welcoming...
A day to reflect on the plight of millions
I have never scrambled in the dirt for food in a refugee camp. I’ve never wished for the coast while looking over the prow of an overcrowded boat on the Mediterranean. Nor have I hunkered down in a crumbling Ukrainian apartment complex, hoping the next bomb doesn’t...
As Secular Peace Effort Stutters in Israel, Religious Mediators Hope to Step In
"At the height of the second major Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against the Israeli occupation in 2002, the two men helped organize a major meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, including rabbis, imams and Christian clerics. It resulted in a joint declaration from...
Real News: Where is it?
Professor David Markowitz talks with Crossings Institute co-Director Peter Laufer in this episode of "Real News: Where is it?" The two explore theories of Truth Default and Plausibility, studies that can help news consumers best navigate news sources during an era of...