Throughout the centuries, men and women of reason have sought to define and protect fundamental human rights—those birthrights that people of all cultures, creeds and colours innately hold as their own.

These men and women have championed, as well, the means of ensuring that, even if their governments did not actively protect those rights, they at least did not indiscriminately trample upon them.

So it was that in 1215 a company of English knights forced King John to guarantee certain rights in a document known as the Magna Carta, laying a foundation for parliamentary government. Seven centuries later, in 1948, basic principles of human rights and human liberty were set down and guaranteed to peoples of all lands by the United Nations General Assembly under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Each its own eloquent and articulate document, the words on paper, of course, cannot guarantee anything. But the spirit with which both the Magna Carta and UDHR were written—and a dedication to the public interest—can.

Thus through the past century’s civil rights tumults, political treacheries, and ideology-driven inhumanity, we have nonetheless emerged with human rights more broadly recognised than ever before. That important changes have taken place is a fact. That freedom of the press has played an integral role in those changes is likewise a fact.

It is, however, where the methods of journalism and the cause of public service meet that a catalyst can further set in motion events and reforms that can achieve objectives far beyond the reader’s information needs. It is in this spirit that Scientology churches worldwide have taken deeply to heart that journalism is, in its essence, a public service.

That public service and catalyst for reform in the 21st century is embodied in the Church of Scientology’s Freedom magazine.