CNN Freedom Project

{{short description|CNN project to expose modern-day slavery and human trafficking}}

{{more citations needed|date=January 2017}}

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.{{cite web | title=CNN Documents Manny Pacquiao, Human Rights Pioneer's Anti-Slavery Fight | website=Christian Post | date=2013-05-16 | url=http://www.christianpost.com/news/cnn-documents-manny-pacquiao-human-rights-pioneers-anti-slavery-fight-95953/ | accessdate=2016-01-02}}

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.{{Cite web |title=Tony Maddox |author=U.S. Department of State |work=Trafficking in Persons Report Heroes |date=2015 |access-date=17 July 2019 |url= http://www.tipheroes.org/tony-maddox/}}

In March 2019 its reporting on child labor in fishing communities of Lake Volta in Ghana{{Cite web|author=Dominika Kulczyk, for|title=Freeing the child slaves of Lake Volta|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/01/opinions/lake-volta-child-slaves-dominika-kulczyk/index.html|access-date=2020-12-19|website=CNN}} 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.{{Cite web |title=How CNN reported on 'child slaves' who were not really enslaved |last=Okyere |first=Samuel |work=aljazeera.com |date=18 March 2019 |access-date=30 July 2019 |url= https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/cnn-reported-child-slaves-enslaved-190315103733047.html }}