May 3 is World Press Freedom Day. This is my story of censorship.

I am a freelance writer and, like many other freelancers, I value a regular gig. So when a regular gig goes south and I’m faced with the decision of whether or not to take my pen and go write someplace else, it’s not a decision I make lightly. May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, and it was about this time last year that I butted heads with and severed ties with the publication that I had come to rely on for a steady stream of work.

I write for parenting publications and I was very proud of the fact that I wrote award-winning features for a regional parenting publication in my city. For this publication, I also wrote a monthly blog and had a modest following. My relationship with the editor was stellar and we had known one another and worked together for over 15 years.

My editor was not the problem. No. It was higher up. The publisher. An email conversation with the publisher on how to monetize my blog prompted the publisher to look at my blog (apparently for the first time) and she began yanking the blogs she disagreed with politically. I thought that I had painstakingly kept politics out of my work. I always took the humanitarian viewpoint and how it relates to parenting while never mentioning political figures or engaging in finger-pointing.

I was shocked.

Blogs are modern columns. My monthly blog was rooted in opinion and personal experience. The editor agreed with me. The publisher did not. She expected me to conform. She trumped her own editor’s judgement because of her personally held views. Columnists, cartoonists, bloggers, and other opinion writers should be able to engage in conversation about world events with readers. Publications should offer opposing views in their opinion sections, not require their contributors to align themselves with the publication leadership’s way of thinking.

In the end, the publisher went though the history of my blog and deleted anything she deemed “political” (read — disagreed with). That is when I told her to delete the whole thing. You can’t cherry-pick. You either value my opinion and the community conversation it prompts or you don’t. The publication owns the reported features they commissioned me to write. I own my opinions and the blog content. I further told the publisher that I would no longer accept assignments for her publication.

What I Learned

Quite a few well-meaning people told me not to burn any bridges. They said I shouldn’t just walk away. But sometimes you have to walk away from something comfortable to create the space for growth and opportunity. I’m an essayist and an award-winning opinion writer. When you write honestly and with integrity people know the difference. Your voice can’t be authentic if it’s actively being stifled. Service journalism and beat reporting is one thing. Keep your opinions out of it. But columns, opinions, and even letters to the editors, that is where the conversation is being had after people read the reported pages. The best thing you can do for your community is to have hard conversations. The opinion pages are where those conversations can begin.

The Karma

My editor of the parenting publication had just uploaded my latest blog in response to the child-separation crisis happening at the southern border of the United States. That blog was the first one the publisher deemed “too political” for her parenting publication. When she deleted it, I sent it to The Cincinnati Enquirer. They ran it as an Op-Ed. That Op-Ed has been recognized with two awards so far. It placed in the National Federation of Press Women’s Ohio awards and it is a finalist in the Cleveland Press Club’s Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards competition. As of this writing I do not know where it has placed. The awards are June 7, 2019.

Your best stuff comes from a place that’s deep and genuine. On World Press Freedom Day, I encourage you to keep writing. If a publication wants to tell you “no,” not because the writing is poor, but because they simply disagree with you, find a publication that values diversity in opinion and will let your voice be heard.