Dear readers,

This month’s issue is about something almost as omnipresent as the air we breathe. It hovers around us and affects our daily lives, but we often fail to notice it. It, or they, can be our portal so we see what is happening in other parts of the Earth. They can provide an ice breaker in a far-from-fun party. What is this everyday, everywhere thing?

The media: whether it’s a news portal on the Internet, a TV broadcast, radio show, magazine or newspaper, the media feeds us with updates that help us making informed choices. We thrive on the media and the media thrives on the free flow of information.

Every May 3 the world observes Free Press Day, remembering men and women in the industry whose work has changed the way people see war, freedom and human rights forever.

In this edition you can read about young people who took on journalism as their way of life, not just as their profession. You can read about students who learned journalism just to hone the soft skills they believed would be useful in the future.

Nowadays, everyone can become a journalist in a sense that we can share our opinion or observation on a phenomenon with the world, thanks to advances in communication technology.

You already know this - your generation is already thoroughly involved in accessing information and creating it in the so-called new media.

But the freedom to speak up comes with the responsibility to ensure that the rights of others to have access to the truth is not violated in the process.

After all is said and done, writing is at the core. Be creative, make writing your habit and send us a sample of what you are doing. Will we be able to say one day, “We knew them when ...”?

This month youthspeak has changed our look just a bit. Can you pick up on the change? We now bring you news alongside adverts. Are we hitting the right merchandise and services, items you need to know about? Or have we gone the way of the commercial world? Consider what it means to bring advertising to a young audience, and tell us if we are doing it right, or not so much.

Until next time,

— Editor