Project Censored

Project Censored is a non-profit, sociological project of an investigative nature within the Sonoma State University Foundation. It is managed through the School of Social Sciences at the university.

According to the Project Censored official website, the organization describes itself as a media research group that "tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."

Project Censored identifies and researches news stories which it believes have been underreported, mis-reported, or censored in the mainstream media. With this research, the group aims to advocate the protection of the First Amendment rights granted by the United States Constitution and freedom of information within the United States of America. The project is built around the "Sociology 435: Media Censorship" course based at the university. This course requires long hours of researching library databases. Each student is invited to develop skills of finding and researching such news stories and make full use of them for the purpose of conducting coverage reports on more than 200 under-published stories yearly. One of the goals of the project is to encourage the development of a national interconnected community-based media news service that will offer a "diversity" of news and information to local mainstream audiences through various media. Support and encouragement is provided to journalists, faculty, and student investigation of the principle objectives as stated above.

According to the group, a story covered by Project Censored should:

1. contain information that the general population has a right and a need to know, but to which it has limited access.
2. be timely, ongoing, and have implications for a significant number of residents of the United States of America.
3. have clearly defined concepts and be backed with solid verifiable documentation.
4. have been published electronically or in print, in a circulated newspaper, journal, magazine, newsletter, or similar publication by a foreign or domestic source.
5. have direct connections and implications for people within the United States of America, possibly including activities US citizens are engaged in abroad.

Article Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Censored
Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenisthenewred/ / CC BY 2.0