The two Tweets I have included focus on the repression of citizen journalism in Pakistan. The first tweet from Pakistani journalist and blogger Beena Sarwar’s Twitter feed documents other supporters of Pakistani journalism as they create signs in order to protest the repression that journalists face. There is a concern over the free press in Pakistan and prominent journalists and activists like Beena Sarwar are able to spread information and pictures like these to show how people in Pakistan push for change. The use of social media helps this process because Beena Sarwar has over 189K Twitter followers and can spread information effectively.

The second tweet from Megha Rajagopalan’s Twitter feed highlights the concern felt across the globe by journalists – as a record number have been jailed. Megha shares the idea that this is a global crisis for citizen journalists across the globe. She also emphasizes the debate that Western countries, with the U.S. in particular, do not recognize this crisis. The experiences of journalists in the U.S. are highly different than other journalists around the world. There is a great deal of repression against journalists in places like Pakistan and other South Asian countries. Certainly, many feel that U.S. journalists – with their capabilities and freedom – should do more to help journalists around the world who struggle with this repression.