City Lights (not EFF) will host this event. EFF Senior Staff Technologist Bill Budington will be speaking.
City Lights, Project Censored, and Seven Stories Press celebrate the publication of “STATE OF THE FREE PRESS 2025” – Edited by Mickey Huff, Shealeigh Voitl, and Andy Lee Roth – Published by Seven Stories Press. Moderated by Bill Budington with Mickey Huff, Andy Lee Roth, Mischa Geracoulis, and Shealeigh Voitl
When:
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm PST
Where:
Online
Cost:
None
Event Requirements:
Registration is required.
About the book:
“There’s no power for the people without journalism by and for the people,” assert Maya Schenwar and Lara Witt of the Movement Media Alliance, in Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2026—an apt summary of the new yearbook’s focus. The 2026 yearbook celebrates Project Censored’s fiftieth anniversary, while tracking emerging threats to press freedom.
Highlighting the year’s most significant independent journalism—including original, investigative reports on ICE surveillance, Meta censorship, and police violence—State of the Free Press 2026 illuminates issues that the establishment press have obscured and raises voices that corporate media have throttled.
Balancing critical analysis with optimistic vision, the volume’s diverse contributors champion press freedom and critical media literacy to empower individuals and unite communities in the battles to hold the powerful accountable and defend democracy from authoritarian assaults.
About the Speakers:
Bill Budington is a longtime activist, cryptography enthusiast, and a Senior Staff Technologist on EFF’s Public Interest Technology team. His research has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and cited by the U.S. Congress.
Mickey Huff is the director of Project Censored and president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. Since 2009, he has coedited the Project Censored yearbook. He is also coauthor of United States of Distraction (City Lights, 2019) and Let’s Agree to Disagree (Routledge, 2022). Huff is professor of social science, history, and journalism at Diablo Valley College where he chairs the journalism department.
Andy Lee Roth is associate director of Project Censored and coordinator of the Project’s Campus Affiliates program. His work has appeared in YES! Magazine, In These Times, and scholarly journals.
Mischa Geracoulis is is the Outreach & Engagement Officer at Project Censored and the Production Lead at the Project’s publishing imprint, The Censored Press; contributor to Project Censored’s “State of the Free Press” yearbook series; a Project Judge; and author of “Media Framing and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage” (Routledge, 2025).
Shealeigh Voitl is Project Censored’s associate director. She first began her research with the Project at North Central College alongside Steve Macek, co-authoring the Déjá Vu News chapter in the State of the Free Press 2022 and 2023, and the Top 25 chapter in SFP 2023. In addition to her contributions as a recent co-editor of the yearbook series, and work with the Campus Affiliate Program and on other Censored Press titles, Shealeigh helped develop the State of the Free Press 2024 Teaching Guide, the Project’s Beyond Fact-Checking: A Teaching Guide to the Power of News Frames, and The Project Censored Show’s forthcoming segment Frame-Check. Her writing has also been featured in Truthout, The Progressive, and Ms. Magazine. She lives in Chicago.
