Press Start: Enabling Journalists from Around the World

Habib Battah, Zaklina Zafirova, Ruslan Gorbachev and Volodymr Torbich are not familiar names to most of us. These writers are investigative reporters from Lebanon, Macedonia, Belarus and Russia where the press cannot report freely. Now Scarsdale resident Gary Regenstreif, former Editor-at-Large at Reuters, wants to bring us their stories. Says Regenstreif, "Because of press restrictions in countries across the globe, so many important stories are going untold, of issues and events that have a bearing on local communities and that are of interest beyond those borders."

Regenstreif is Chairman of the Advisory Board of Press Start, a new platform to crowd fund journalists in countries where they cannot report freely. Press Start will fund independent journalists for a period of several months to give them time to conceive, develop, investigate and write stories that may not see mainstream media coverage. The stories will be published on different platforms to ensure a wide audience.

Interestingly, Press Start's focus is on local journalists, from countries that have less press freedom, and limited access to funds that investigative journalism requires. Press Start has received an initial grant from National Endowment for Democracy, a DC based organization committed to 'opposition building' and 'encouraging pluralism' in support for democracy. It also hopes to raise more money for journalists through crowd funding projects. Asserts Regenstreif, "It takes very little for world citizens to become actively engaged in conversations that can make an impact and challenge the status quo. A commitment as low as the price of your favorite Starbucks coffee can be the game changer."

Press Start was initiated by Jeremy Druker, a Jewish-American publisher based in Prague. Druker is the founder of Transitions, a journalism training organization in Central and Eastern Europe and publisher of tol.org, a news magazine about the post-communist region. Through years of training journalists to acquire reporting skills, Druker realized that just skill building was not enough; investigative journalists also require time and funds for narratives, which are both scarce commodities in the constantly changing information landscape. Regenstreif shares the opinion. In a career spanning over two decades, and managing newsrooms in three continents, Regenstreif knows the importance of not letting important stories slip through the cracks. In Press Start he saw the potential to harness technology, new forms of fundraising and growing international interest to create meaningful engagement.

Press Start has an impressive line-up of investigative journalists. Habib Battah, the well-known Lebanese journalist runs the blog Beirut Report and chronicles the rapidly decreasing public space in Lebanon and the deliberate destruction of ancient archeology sites. According to him, " These stories do not find their way into mainstream media. Ours is a broken state, and politicians take up airtime and print space with political blame and bickering. The noise is effective in obfuscation of the truth - of precious archaeological sites being destroyed, of poor municipal planning and even the politics of garbage in Beirut."

Battah writes in English, but in many countries, reporters write in their own language. Says Regenstreif, " Reporters may not be able to finance their stories, or have access to a platform to publish them. Through Press Start we will support their stories, translate them into English when they resonate across borders and publish them on various digital platforms and blogs for more reach." SCOOP Macedonia has partnered with Press Start and its founder Zaklina Zafirova is excited, " In Macedonia, independent funding is a rare opportunity. The funds from Press Start will enable journalists to write about issues without the fear of being fired from their jobs. And their translated works will reach a larger audience. " As will the works of Belarusian Ruslan Gorbachev and Ukrainian Volodymyr Torbich.

Cognizant of the dangers to journalists who are often threatened, imprisoned or even killed, Regenstreif asserts, " If there is a greater perceived or real threat to a journalist's life, we are willing to protect them by running their story under a pseudonym."

Will Press Start succeed? Its impact may take months or years to measure, but investigative journalism needs tremendous support. Newsrooms across the world are under pressure and the 2015 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, does not paint a happy picture. The index records that two thirds of the countries in its 180 strong sample size recorded a decline in press freedom in 2014. Conflicts imploded this past year that directly impacted the media. Threats from non-state operatives, violent demonstrations, and the economic crisis restricted or even silenced the media. Used as either a propaganda machine, or starved for information, media's freedom has waned in all five continents. (From its #19 position in 2010, the U.S. has steadily gone down, and in 2015 was at #34). Journalists in new democracies or countries witnessing social churn are particularly vulnerable, and their stories need a larger global audience that may help to spur change.

Regenstreif is upbeat, "We have a collective responsibility to stand up to all that attempts to suppress the basic right to information and the enduring nature of the human spirit. Whether donors are in New York or Stockholm, Frankfurt or Tokyo, they can feel gratified that they are helping to inform others who may be in the dark and that in the process they are strengthening democracies."

Those interested in following the progress of Press Start can sign up for updates on its website, which will soon launch formally, at www.pressstart.org.