Last week, Annenberg Classroom released a short film designed to teach students about freedom of the press.
The 28-minute film, titled “Holding the Line: Journalism and Democracy,” was created to improve high school student awareness of the free-press rights outlined by the First Amendment. The documentary joins a series of over 65 educational videos on Annenberg Classroom about the Constitution of the United States.
Susan Schaefer, who wrote and produced the film, explained in an interview that she selected stories that depict journalists who are “holding power to account.”
The film begins with footage of a police raid on the Marion County Record — a local Kansas newspaper — which she characterized as “a microcosm of the battle over freedom of the press.”
She added that she chose to highlight journalists who are using “freedom of the press to provide information to citizens so that they can engage in our democracy.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Caitlin Dickerson and Anna Wolfe are later featured in the documentary for their muckraking work.
Dickerson conducted an 18-month investigation into family separations attributed to the Trump administration, while Wolfe discovered and publicized Mississippi’s welfare funds scandal.
Annenberg Classroom developed the material in a collaboration with The Documentary Group.
RELATED:
Forbes fired its top editor in July. He got his start in journalism at Penn
‘One of a kind’: Penn’s Center for Media at Risk to close as longtime director retires
Schaefer, who works for the film company, explained that the final collection of stories “provided different angles and different storylines” that allow viewers to “appreciate not only the constitutional context,” but also understand real-world examples of how journalists put their constitutional rights into action.
Columbia Journalism School professor Sheila Coronel, who was also featured in the film, explained in an interview that she witnessed firsthand how “censorship enabled kleptocracy, corruption, human rights abuses” while living under a dictatorship in the Philippines.
“I am very aware of the consequences of a censored press — not just on democracy, but on society, on the economy, and on overall political and social development,” she added.
Caitlin Vogus, senior advisor, advocacy, at Freedom of the Press Foundation was featured in the documentary and expressed in an interview that “it’s journalists’ role to hold the powerful to account and provide the public with truthful information.”
The film will be publicly screened in New York during Civic Learning Week in March 2027, according to Andrea Reidell.
“It's essential that everyone knows their rights and knows about the Constitution,” Reidell — the director of outreach and curriculum at the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics — said in an interview.
The film’s cast emphasized the importance of journalism and the investigative work that journalists undertake.
“If journalists can report the truth, then the public can know the truth. It affects every person in the United States,” Vogus said. “If journalists are stopped from reporting the truth, then there are many things that the public will never find out.”
She added that the responsibility also lies with others, namely “sources, people who have valuable information,” and “whistleblowers who want to come forward and reveal something to the public.”
Coronel also emphasized that international awareness is important.
“Press freedom is under attack, not just in the United States, but in many parts of the world,” she said. “We need to inform and remind citizens about the important role that a free press plays in a democracy, especially at a time when democracy itself is also under attack.”
