Local Independent Press / Citizen Journalism:

- By Bahram Maskanian

Journalism is a highly misunderstood profession.  Journalism is not supposed to be reporting distractions and the obvious.  Rather, journalism is an immense social responsibility, an honorable profession, and a powerful democratic instrument for preserving and protecting democratic principles and values.  Journalism is the protective shield and informative body absolutely necessary to protect the public by informing the people of the conducts of their government and the ruling elites.  An authentic journalism are those who investigate, discover and reveal the truth, informing people of what the ruling elites and government doesn't want the public to know.

Journalists are the guardians of democracy.

Local independent press / citizen journalism must be free from foreign, religion and all other none-democratic influences, funded by the taxpaying public and its membership.  All of the news gathering and reporting organizations must be non-profit, co-operatives, owned and operated by the local people of the region and the employees of the organization.