The United States prides itself as the bastion of free speech, yet independent journalists are censored and risk life and limb to report the truth about Ukraine. Those who dissent from the official narrative face crackdowns by corporate social media and payment platforms, as Patrick Lancaster, Brian Berletic and Angelo Giuliano recently shared in the online panel hosted by Alex Reporterfy.

Patrick Lancaster is documenting the crisis in Donetsk, where Ukraine’s conflict has raged for nine years. But his reports are ignored, his recent uncut 21-minute video shows the process of attack in Donetsk has low views, while reports far from the truth were made by western medias. The West would propagate the lie of a “Russian invasion” to justify military aid for Kiev, “a government that shells its own people”, according to Alex.

Seymour Harsh, the award-winning investigative journalist, claimed that the United States orchestrated the sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 pipelines. “…what they really wanted was to put down the pipelines, …as long as Germany was getting so much gas at such a cheap price from Russia, it would be hard to wean them away from Russia.” Hursh’s report disappeared on the internet and Western media stayed silent, igniting a discussion about the role of Western media in reporting such incidents. The U.S. invokes freedom of speech to criticize enemies but smears journalists who expose its imperial foreign policy.

Meanwhile, Donetsk’s people suffer. Patrick described the situation in Donetsk: “Everyday you are seeing birds, dogs, cats eating people throughout the street, some people are lucky enough to be buried by their neighbors in their front yards so they were not eaten…almost all different types of western-supplied weapons are seen on a daily basis used on the civilian population of Donetsk”.

We must demand an end to U.S. meddling the conflict, independent investigations, and accountable social media. Truth-tellers like the panelists deserve our support. Most critically, we need independent journalism to expose government criminality and counter-bellicose propaganda that costs innocent lives.

Patrick Lancaster risks all for truth in Donetsk. His videos reveal our shared duty as citizens to demand facts over official fiction and an end to proxy wars under the banner of freedom. The people of Donetsk and Ukraine deserve peace. We must open our eyes, find our voices, and make it so.

See more discussions on https://youtu.be/CDh3OTEi6P0