--- title: How Free Press is the Best Weapon In America's Information War description: Protecting journalists on the front lines of the world's information war, how Nigeria could be Africa's car capital and more. canonical: https://time.com/4098141/free-press-information-war-america/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-03T17:01:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:03.829Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Free Press Is the Best Weapon In America's Information War og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4098141/free-press-information-war-america/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Free Press Is the Best Weapon In America's Information War twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Free Press Is the Best Weapon In America's Information War by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 3, 2015 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 3, 2015 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**In America’s information war, a free press is our most effective weapon.**](https://medium.com/foggy-bottom/fighting-for-the-rights-of-truth-tellers-c331c59e2c54) By Richard Stengel in Medium **2\.** [**In 35 years, Nigeria could be the automotive capital of Africa.**](http://qz.com/539729/in-35-years-nigeria-could-be-the-automotive-capital-of-africa/) By Yomi Kazeem in Quartz **3\.** [**Global digital networks are the secret ingredient to ending poverty.**](http://www.wired.com/2015/11/connecting-worlds-poorest-the-best-hope-for-ending-poverty/) By Laurence Chandy in Wired **4\.** [**Want to tackle gun violence? End the drug war.**](http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/end-drug-war-cut-gun-violence) By Adam Bates at the Cato Institute **5\.** [**How one of the world’s most obese countries took on big soda.**](http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/nov/03/obese-soda-sugar-tax-mexico) By Tina Rosenberg in the Guardian  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4098141/free-press-information-war-america/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4098141/free-press-information-war-america/"},"headline":"How Free Press Is the Best Weapon In America's Information War","datePublished":"2015-11-03T17:01:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:03.829Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4098141/free-press-information-war-america/","keywords":["Innovation","poverty","Soda","Journalism","Guns","Nigeria"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4098141/free-press-information-war-america/","name":"How Free Press Is the Best Weapon In America's Information War"}}]}] ```