English Entertainment
CNN’S #MYFREEDOMDAY calls on students around the world to “Know The Signs” of modern day slavery
Mumbai: CNN’s student-driven social media event, #MyFreedom has returned on 16 March. The driving force behind this year’s event is a call on students and communities worldwide to “Know the Signs” of modern-day slavery, as a key tool to identify and stamp out human trafficking in their communities.
Thousands of students from more than 100 countries around the world have accepted this year’s call to action, with students organizing online discussions, book clubs, art exhibitions, video campaigns, live music performances, among many other activities being planned.
#MyFreedomDay coverage will kick off at 12amET on CNN International, with correspondents contributing throughout the day from Atlanta, Hong Kong, and London among others. CNN correspondents will also highlight remarkable stories of survivors of human trafficking from such diverse places as Bolivia, Cambodia and San Diego, California.
On Saturday 18 March, CNN International will broadcast Fighting for Mercy: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary. This film follows Mercy Esther, a survivor who at just eight years old was taken from her village in rural Tanzania and forced into domestic servitude in a faraway city. At 16, she made a daring escape to find her family and reclaim her life. Working with the Kulczyk Foundation, the CNN Freedom Project investigates this common reality in Tanzania and highlights one brave Tanzanian woman, a survivor of domestic servitude herself, who has devoted her life to saving girls like Mercy Esther and changing the mindset of people who have allowed this abuse to become a part of the culture.
CNN’s #MyFreedomDay microsite, CNN.com/MyFreedomDay will offer interactive content to “Know the Signs” of modern-day slavery in all its different forms and serve as education tools for students and broader audiences worldwide. CNN is encouraging students to share their responses to the question ‘What does freedom mean to you?’ using the #MyFreedomDay hashtag, which will be showcased on the microsite.
Leif Coorlim, executive editor of the CNN Freedom Project said, “Year after year, we are amazed by the response of students from around the world, who, inspired by the remarkable stories of survivors of human trafficking, turn their alarm into action. This year, we are honored to offer them practical tools to know the signs of modern-day slavery so that they may amplify this message and help put an end to it wherever it occurs.”
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
