We are nearly ten years young!
In May 2011, it will be a decade since openDemocracy went live, warning we needed a better governed world. Then came 9/11 and the start of a decade that only served to confirm our fears.
This month we’re launching a special appeal for support. We want to raise £100,000 for 2011, starting now.
Battling ignorance and injustice
National media have continued to become more parochial in recent years*. But the world is more interconnected than ever.
openDemocracy’s international writers and editors have brought illumination to the way the we are governed, to causes and consequences of inequality and injustice in many parts of the world, from the US to Iran, Russia, the Middle East, South Africa, Chile, Italy and Burma – to name only a few examples.
It is a unique range of coverage that is widely read, referenced, linked to and republished by universities, activists, journalists, think-tanks and people in government across the world.
We want this to stay open and free to ensure the widest possible dissemination. And we have no shareholders or proprietors to stifle editorial independence**. Your donations help to keep us publishing articles and the website up and running.
Democracy – the unfinished story
Rights, equality, better government – these are too important to be left to a single body, or a set of organisations or “the media”. This year we want to
- expand and deepen debates on human rights – the stories of their
origins, of the tension between universal rights and specific
identities, and the extension of human rights from
equality before the law to greater equality in fact, taking economic
and social conditions seriously - add more coverage of India, Burma and south east Asia
- add more coverage of rights and democracy in African countries
- find ways to get our coverage to more places where people don’t have access to the internet all the time
- provide more of our important articles in other languages such as French, Spanish and Arabic
- and bring this together in a major gathering of openDemocracy authors & readers to look to the future in 2011.
All of this is possible with your help. Together we can shape ideas and improve debate and understanding where it really counts.
I'm suggesting £10 for every year we’ve been publishing. The amount is your choice, please give what you can here.
Thank you for your support
Julian Stern
Executive Director
openDemocracy
"openDemocracy is a brilliant web publication”, Clare Sambrook, 2010 winner of the Bevins Prize and Paul Foot award for investigative journalism.
*See, for example, the recent UK Media Standards Trust report
**openDemocracy is owned by a non-profit foundation, read more about the openDemocracy Foundation and its directors here.
