CNN Freedom Project

The CNN Freedom Project is a year-long humanitarian news media campaign launched by CNN and CNN International in 2011 to "end modern-day slavery" and related illegal practices, including human trafficking.[1]

It was started on the initiative of CNN International's vice president Tony Maddox, who was honored for this in 2015 by the U.S. Department of State as a Trafficking in Persons Report Hero.[2]

In March 2019 its reporting on child labor in fishing communities of Lake Volta in Ghana[3] was criticized by the Ghanaian politician Betty Mensah and the academic Samuel Okyere, who said CNN ignored that many children become self-sufficient fishermen in adulthood and can thus be described as apprentices rather than slaves.[4]

  1. ^ "CNN Documents Manny Pacquiao, Human Rights Pioneer's Anti-Slavery Fight". Christian Post. 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
  2. ^ U.S. Department of State (2015). "Tony Maddox". Trafficking in Persons Report Heroes. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  3. ^ Dominika Kulczyk, for. "Freeing the child slaves of Lake Volta". CNN. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  4. ^ Okyere, Samuel (18 March 2019). "How CNN reported on 'child slaves' who were not really enslaved". aljazeera.com. Retrieved 30 July 2019.