Special Series

FSRN's Andrew Stelzer interviewed several of our international correspondents for the documentary, Press Freedom on the Front Lines. Here is the uncut tape from his interview with our correspondent in Honduras, Tim Russo.

In yesterday's newscast, we looked at the issue of transnational human trafficking in Houston, Texas. Human trafficking is a term that encompasses both modern-day slavery and sexual exploitation by force, fraud or coercion. Media coverage often focuses on the effects of human trafficking on immigrants, while the issue of domestic trafficking remains largely ignored or misunderstood. Shannon Young brings us the second part of a special FSRN series on human trafficking by focusing on the domestic side of the world's second most profitable illicit business.

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The modern-day slave trade - known as human trafficking - rivals weapons smuggling as the most lucrative illegal business after drug trafficking. One of the largest hubs for modern-day slavery in the United States is Houston, Texas. The southern city is home to a large seaport, a sprawling international airport, and is a major destination along Interstate 10 - identified by the Department of Justice as one of the main human trafficking routes in the United States. In the first of a two-part series on human trafficking, FSRN's Shannon Young files this report on transnational slavery in Houston.

(TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE)

One important environmental issue that has received scant attention at Copenhagen is that of access to  - and use of - clean water resources. Water-borne illnesses are a leading cause of death - killing over 2 million people worldwide each year. Continued population growth has also strained the capacity of fresh water reserves to replenish themselves...but water conservationists say shrinking water supplies have more to do with how we use and distribute the vital liquid. Shannon Young takes a look at how some individuals are using household-level solutions to deal with the water crisis in Oaxaca, Mexico.

This week marks the 10 year anniversary of the protests in Seattle that took place during the World Trade Organization's meeting. The week brought together a coalition of environmentalists, labor activists and human rights groups and drew attention to the WTO's expanding influence throughout the world. It also led to new innovations in independent media and a growth in citizen journalism. In the second of a two-part series, FSRN's Jill Friedberg has more on the legacy of independent media centers, ten years later.

After the WTO protests, a debate emerged about future strategies: Was it more effective to travel from one protest to the next, or to stay home and do grassroots organizing around the local impacts of trade agreements? Jill Friedberg speaks to activists who decided to stay local, and focus on grassroots community organizing and transforming protest politics in a wider organizing movement.

The WTO protests were noticeably white, and many claimed that racism within the movement was partly to blame for that. To what extent have white activists sought to understand and address racism in the movement? In this installment of the WTO anniversary series, Jill Friedman speaks with Scott Winn, founder of the Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, an organization that was formed after the WTO protests, in direct response to discussions about racism within the anti-globalization movement; and to Colin Rajah of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and author of several articles and essays about the lack of people-of-color at the WTO protests.