Breakthrough Media

Support BreakThrough News field reporting from the Horn of Africa

 

For months BreakThrough has been uniquely providing detailed and factual analysis of what’s really happening with the conflict in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Now we — Rania Khalek and Eugene Puryear — will be directly reporting from the field.

 

BreakThrough News has been going head to head with the misinformation from CNN and other corporate-owned Western outlets. But unlike them, we are a small non-profit media organization that relies on donations to continue our work. We have no corporate advertisers. To arrange travel, equipment and media production for a field reporting crew in the Horn of Africa has already cost BreakThrough many, many thousands of dollars. It is not easy to do conflict zone reporting but our work is not in search of profit or fame or clicks — just the truth.

 

We are asking all those who have appreciated BreakThrough’s unique coverage of the Ethiopia conflict, and all those who want to support our work in the field, to please make a donation. Every dollar is greatly appreciated!

 

Throughout the trip, we will be providing regular video and podcast reports on Twitter, YouTube, and across social media platforms @btnewsroom

Donations made in excess of the goal will go to support and grow BreakThrough’s field reporting in 2022. 

BreakThrough is a 501(c)3 organization and donations are tax-deductible. 

BreakThrough is excited to be launching a new volunteer-based program for grassroots media makers: BreakThrough Disrupters.

At BreakThrough News, we firmly believe that media should be of, by and for the people. To us, this kind of people’s journalism tells stories that uplift the working class, gives voice to the voiceless and goes deeper than the superficial content on offer by corporate-owned media. We report on the injustices of the current system, the crimes of the billionaire class and the corruption of those in power.

No one can ever predict where exactly the next major movement will erupt, but BT wants to be there. These movements need their own independent media arm, and we want to build it. BreakThrough Disrupters will provide local organizers a platform with national and international reach ready to cover their struggle, and manage a local and regional communications platform for Disrupter journalists to share with one another.

With five mega-corporations dominating the media, developing independent media is more necessary than ever. To this end, BreakThrough will be organizing educational activities such as workshops and academies to train volunteer Disrupters, who will take these skills to organize people’s media coverage in their local areas.

We will teach best practices for covering local activities of different types, from mass rallies to on-the-spot interviews, and our methodology for building anti-capitalist media. Our network will facilitate building bridges between progressive journalists, media makers, activists, creatives and justice-loving individuals across the country.

This kind of media project will not be funded by corporate media moguls – we are funded by you.

To make this media network come to life, we need your support. If you want to see BreakThrough bring high-quality media, and training, to working-class communities nationwide, show your support and make a donation!

Update: Last Wednesday in Washington, D.C. was not your normal livestream operation. Moments into the march towards Congress, police without warning began pepper spraying a massive crowd of protesters and journalists. BreakThrough, as the official livestream partner of the event, was at the front and practically our entire team was hit directly in the face. 

The severe stinging put our reporters out of commission for a while, but we amazingly kept the stream going and our team regrouped to stay with the march for hours — even with our eyes, face and still hands burning.

It's a good thing we were there: If you watched mainstream media the next day, you'd think the protesters were the violent ones and the police were keeping the peace!

Huge numbers are expected for a mass protest in front of the Capitol on July 24. Netanyahu is proceeding with his trip to Washington, D.C and will speak before Congress to justify the genocide of Palestinians and insist on more military support to continue the war.

BreakThrough will again be the official livestream partner for the protest, as we have been for all three national marches since last October. We’ll be covering the main rally from the stage, and live-streaming from the crowd and march, while producing the feed to large Jumbotron screens. To avoid internet issues, this time we're contracting a satellite van.

This is a ton of work, and requires thousands of dollars in travel expenses and rentals. The whole BT team will be there.

We can't rely on the corporate-controlled media to adequately cover the people's movements. As a nonprofit media outlet, we’ve only been able to do this thanks to all the generous support we’ve received from all of you around the world.

Please help us keep it going! Thanks again.

BreakThrough’s next big project is coming up fast and we need your help. We are proud to announce we will be the livestream and video production partner of the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit this weekend.

Thousands of activists and leaders are converging from across the country to strategize at a crucial moment. For this historic event to reach the millions who can’t make the trip to Detroit, the BT team will be your eyes and ears, providing nonstop, high-quality, professional coverage all weekend.

But here are expenses associated with running a complex livestream operation like this in a massive hall.

As you can see, this event can’t be done small. BT is dedicated to nonprofit journalism, which means operating on a limited budget and stretching every dollar. We agreed to this ambitious project because we know we have many generous people like you in our community who would chip in whatever they could.

If this were an AIPAC conference, they’d easily spend hundreds of thousands on professional A/V to churn out their propaganda. We are going to spend a fraction of that to get out the truth. Thank you for all you can give!

Hey everyone, tomorrow there is going to be a national March for Gaza in Washington, D.C., and just like the last national march, BreakThrough is going to be the official media partner. It's a great honor. We’ll be livestreaming the rally; we’ll be doing interviews with speakers and we’ll be doing reports from the crowd.

The whole BT team will be there, we’ll have five separate teams in the field. We’ve only been able to do this thanks to all the generous support we’ve received from all of you around the world. Please help us keep this project going, providing non-stop honest media coverage of the growing movement in solidarity with Palestine.

For all of you who headed to DC to stand up against this genocide, we look forward to seeing you and don’t hesitate to say hello, and give us a quick interview about why you’re marching. Thanks again.