New independent e-news service the Avaaz Daily Briefing aims to cut through “bias, propaganda, and spin,” to deliver the latest clear-cut news on key global issues
Global campaigning network Avaaz looks set to further expand its power and impact with the launch of a new daily news service, Avaaz Daily Briefing.
The network, which has nearly 20 million members worldwide, has been instrumental in cooperatively changing government policy in several countries, and will now be delivering a daily news e-briefing and website update with the latest stories on equality, environmental protection and other key issues to its 20 million members worldwide.
The aim of the expansion is to further grow the “voice of the people,” while stepping away from what Avaaz founders believe to be poor news values that run through most traditional media.
An Avaaz spokesperson said its membership wanted a daily, fully independent news service, in order to stay informed of important issues: “The media we have now is too often cynical, infotainment-obsessed and in thrall to corporate interests. To bring about the changes we all want, our world needs better media – less negative and passive.
“With the help of our many partners and millions of members across the world, our briefings will dig deep through the bias, the propaganda and the spin to find out what’s really going on.”
“No other movement can rapidly mobilise large-scale, coordinated democratic pressure in over 193 countries within 24-hours,” commented the spokesperson.
Last July, 20,000 Avaaz members put pressure on a Bahrain construction company to send home the Indian workers it had lured to the company under false pretences. After one of the workers killed himself, his brother set up a petition on Avaaz and within a few days the company released the workers. The Indian government had been asking the company to make this move for seven years.
A spokesperson for the Indian embassy in Bahrain was quoted as saying that the change would never have happened without Avaaz.