May I Speak Freely Media started out as a film project to document Honduran citizens’ struggles to recover from human rights abuses in the 1980s, which resulted from the U.S.-led war against communism. When we began to interview people on the streets of Honduras about their impressions of the government, one man responded with his own question: “May I speak freely?”

We were struck by his hesitation to be candid, even in a democratic country where freedom of expression, including political dissent, should be guaranteed. And as our project progressed—after the launch of the so-called global war on terror—the question also began to speak to our own concerns about free speech, civil liberties and broader social justice issues in the United States.

Our right to free expression must be exercised in order to protect it. Thus, today our work is an effort encourage and empower people to speak out in support of social change, to share stories and unite voices, and to ultimately stamp out the need to ever ask the question, “May I speak freely?”