A CNN Freedom Project investigation by Fred Pleitgen has been honored at the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) awards.

"Death In The Desert" - a 30 minute special first broadcast late last year on CNN International - revealed the horrifying story of African refugees who are enslaved or tortured, while trying to flee to Israel through the treacherous Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

While awarding the CNN special the Tom Renner Award, the IRE panel noted:

"CNN’s team faced great personal risk in crossing the dangerous badlands of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to expose a network of human trafficking and organ sales in “Death in the Desert.”

The team managed to persuade the hostile, clannish Bedouin tribesmen of the region to talk about their organized kidnapping for ransom and trafficking in African immigrants trying to cross from Egypt into Israel. The team also procured photographic evidence, reviewed by coroners, that suggested some immigrants had their organs harvested before being buried in the desert.

The final scene of nameless immigrants buried in unmarked graves almost within sight of their final destination in Israel provided an emotional finish to a dramatic, difficult and important story."

The CNN team who worked on the special include: Frederik Pleitgen, Mohamed Fahmy, Sheri England, Tim Lister, Ian Lee, Simon Payne and Earl Nurse.

CNN today announced the roll out of a digital magazine format to enhance storytelling through text, video and images and other interactive features. The first story to make use of the new format is CNN's investigation into slavery in Mauritania. Details from CNN's press release below.

CNN Press Release: CNN creates 'digital magazine' for long-form storytelling

To shine a light on the practice of slavery in the country of Mauritania, CNN Digital has rolled out its first ever 'virtual magazine,' a powerful storytelling format that fuses video, text, photography and interactive components. A part of the network's Freedom Project initiative, CNN's John Sutter and Edythe McNamee traveled to the West African nation where an estimated 10-20% of the population lives in slavery, despite a 1981 outlaw of the practice. The special report, 'Slavery's Last Stronghold,’ will appear across all CNN platforms including CNN.com, domestic and international television broadcasts, and via CNN’s mobile website and apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Android Tablet.

“This is a stunning, bold story that demanded a visual presentation to match. We sought to create intimacy, forming connections with the subjects and John and Edythe, showcasing the powerful words, video and images into a new, truly multimedia presentation. This is the kind of story that does real good in the world, and we wanted to use all of the tools we have to make it shine," said Meredith Artley, vice president and managing editor of CNN Digital.

Spending nearly a year to gain entry into the country and conducting many of their interviews at night and in covert locations, CNN Digital’s reporters went to great lengths to uncover the tragedy of multigenerational servitude inMauritania. Captured through a variety of mediums, CNN Digital’s coverage of Mauritania appears online in the form of a digital magazine, personal video accounts and written stories featuring firsthand accounts from freed slaves and one man’s transformative journey from slave owner to abolitionist. In response to the initiative, CNN iReport, the network’s global participatory news community, is gathering messages of hope and support to be shared at a school for escaped slaves inNouakchott, Mauritania.

“CNN’s investigation in Mauritania exemplifies the very nature of the CNN Freedom Project, and that is to seek out stories on modern-day slavery and share them with our viewers around the world,” said Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.

To follow Mauritania and the Freedom Project across social media platforms, go to the CNN Freedom Project page on Facebook, follow @CNNFreedom on Twitter, and attend the Google Plus ‘Hangout’ to discuss Mauritania and slavery in the modern world on Wednesday, March 21 at 4pm.

CNN International will feature this CNN Freedom Project investigation across its programming lineup this week, with additional reports airing the week of March 26. CNNI’s coverage will culminate in a special documentary, ‘Slavery’s Last Stronghold: A CNN Freedom Project Special Report,’ on Thursday, March 29 at 3:30aET. The half-hour program will replay Friday, March 30 at 12:30a; Saturday, March 31 at 2:30a and 11p; Saturday, April 21 at 8:30a; and Sunday, April 22 at 2:30a and 11p (All Times Eastern).

CNN International today kicks off a series of special reports from Vietnam as part of the CNN Freedom Project.

CNN International anchor Natalie Allen reports on a woman's efforts to save a small community threatened by the evils of child traffickers. The revealing reports will air Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on News Stream and Connect The World at 1300 GMT and 2100 GMT respectively.

CNN's press release is below.


CNN Press Release: The CNN Freedom Project Shines The Spotlight On Human Trafficking In Vietnam.

A series of special reports on ‘News Stream' reveals a poor community threatened by child traffickers, and highlights one woman's mission to save "one girl at a time"

CNN's Natalie Allen went to Vietnam on a trip to build a playground for poor children in the Mekong Delta. What she found, and shot with her own camera, was a community so poor and so vulnerable that it had become easy prey to child traffickers.

Airing for the first time on News Stream (1300 GMT) on Monday February 13, ‘The Children of the Dump' is heartbreaking to watch - but it is not without hope. We'll introduce you to one woman on a mission to save this community, as she puts it, "one girl at a time."

Part One:

CNN's Natalie Allen takes us to Rach Gia in southwest Vietnam where she meets a poor community of Cambodian refugees. They fled the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and have been living on the city dump for three generations. They eat what they find in the trash and sleep in shelters they make from the trash. The poverty and filth are crushing. But a bigger threat is child trafficking. Strangers show up at the dump, offer money and promise good jobs for the children... and then disappear. In this CNN Freedom Project report, we'll look at the dangers they face and the one thread of hope that has come their way.

Part Two:

The children of the dump are threatened every day by child traffickers. CNN's Natalie Allen introduces us to a determined volunteer who is fighting to save them, and she is using a surprising weapon - school. In this CNN Freedom Project report, we learn how one woman is arming a community with books and pencils to fight a war against child trafficking. She's using literacy to drive the traffickers away.

Part Three:

CNN's Natalie Allen went to Vietnam to build a playground. The children of the dump had never seen one before, a point that is clearly evident on their faces as the playground is unveiled. Thanks to volunteers from around the world, these children can now see beyond the dump and are starting to dream of a future in a better place, away from the threat of human trafficking.


About The CNN Freedom Project:

The CNN Freedom Project was launched in March 2011 and aims to shine a spotlight on the horrors of modern-day slavery, amplify the voices of the victims, highlight success stories and help unravel the complicated tangle of criminal enterprises trading in human life.

Learn more at www.cnn.com/freedom and follow the Freedom Project on Twitter: @CNNFreedom.

In the latest installment of CNN's ongoing "Freedom Project" initiative, David McKenzie investigates what is happening to children working in the Ivory Coast's cocoa fields.

The special premieres today (Friday) on CNN International at 2000 GMT, with replays scheduled to air across the weekend. Details on additional airtimes, as well as a preview of the program from CNN, is below.

CNN Press Release: The CNN Freedom Project presents 'Chocolate's Child Slaves'

A decade after agreements and pledges were made to end the worst forms of child labour in the West African cocoa plantations, CNN’s David McKenzie in a CNN Freedom Project investigation travels deep into the heart of the Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, to find out exactly what progress has been made.



In September 2001 after a series of reports highlighted human trafficking and physical abuse in West African cocoa farming, which supplies an estimated 35% of the world’s cocoa, the global chocolate industry signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol, or ‘Cocoa Protocol’ an international agreement to end child labour in the production of cocoa. However, ten years on after the protocol, with the promised certification system that would ensure chocolate was free from the worst forms of child labour still not in place, CNN exposed, an industry which remains, for the majority, unchanged. What they discovered was shocking: a human trafficking network and farmers using child labour and a country bitter from an industry offering low prices and little more than broken promises.

Chocolate’s Child Slaves premieres Friday 20th January 2012: 8.00pm GMT.

After the premiere, CNN's Becky Anderson and Richard Quest will host a panel discussion with experts in the field of forced child labour in the cocoa industry.

Questions for the panel can be posted here or you can use #endslavery on Twitter as well as visit the CNN dedicated Freedom Project website, where CNN’s David McKenzie will be available for a live chat.


Additional air times on CNN International include:

Saturday 21st January 2012: 1400 GMT
Sunday 22nd January 2012: 0200 GMT, 0730 GMT, 1030 GMT and 2130 GMT.
Tuesday 24th January 2012: 0400 GMT, 1030 GMT and 1730 GMT.

CNN International was named Cable & Satellite Channel of the Year and Cable & Satellite Network of the Year at the 2011 Asia Television Awards on Thursday. In total, the network nabbed five awards with other wins including:

- Best News Presenter or Anchor: Anna Coren (World Report)
- Best Single News Story / Report: Bangladesh Begging Boy (reported by Sara Sidner)
- Best Social Awareness Programme: The CNN Freedom Project: Nepal's Stolen Children

CNN International's Talk Asia missed out on the award for Best Talk Show, but was highly commended by the judging panel.

Source: Asia Television Awards

CNN International reports that hundreds of African refugees have been released from captivity following the network's screening of the CNN Freedom Project documentary, 'Death In The Desert', in which CNN Correspondent Fred Pleitgen revealed the appalling conditions faced by migrants crossing into Israel from Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula.

The report, "Death in the Desert," which was first broadcast on CNN International on November 5, showed evidence that African refugees, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, were being held captive by Bedouin human traffickers in Sinai, who try to extort massive sums of money from the refugees’ families for their release.

While in captivity the refugees are enslaved, many of the women raped and some even killed. The CNN crew even found evidence that some victims had organs extracted, a practice known as organ harvesting, and were later found dead in the desert.

Shortly after the documentary aired, more than 600 African refugees were released in Sinai, says Hamdi al Azzazy, an activist for the New Generation Foundation for Human Rights who has worked for years in the region, fighting to improve the plight of the African refugees.

His account was backed up by a press release from the EveryOne Group, an Italian non-governmental organization, which has also been raising public awareness about the refugees.

'Death In The Desert' will re-air across CNN International this weekend. You can find schedule times here or you watch the documentary on demand at CNN.com: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

CNN International this weekend debuts a new special in the CNN Freedom Project series.

In the 30 minute program, "Death in the Desert", correspondent Fred Pleitgen uncovers the horrifying story of African refugees who are enslaved or tortured, while trying to flee to Israel through the treacherous Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

You can read a full debrief on special on CNN.com here. A preview of the special from CNN.com is below.



CNN's Freedom Project special "Death in the Desert" airs on CNN International from this weekend at the following times:

Saturday, November 5: 2100 GMT;
Sunday, November 6: 0130 GMT, 1000 GMT, 1700 GMT;
Monday, November 8: 0830 GMT.

CNN Press Release - Half-hour documentary reveals tradition of trafficking in Bharatpur, India; finds hope in younger generation

Watch the trailer here.

Actor, producer and Indian film luminary Anil Kapoor has partnered with the CNN Freedom Project to expose one region’s secret tradition of trafficking in 'Trapped by Tradition: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary.' This is the year’s second major documentary produced by the CNN Freedom Project, the network’s multi-platform initiative which aims to expose the horrors of modern-day slavery and to push for change. 'Trapped by Tradition: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary' premieres Saturday, September 24 at 0900ET on CNN International.

As a special contributor to the CNN Freedom Project, Kapoor visits Bharatpur, a district in his native India where many young girls and women are sold into the sex trade often by members of their own family. This is the second trip to Bharatpur in two years for the film star, who is internationally recognized for his work in the award-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ Kapoor has been involved in the fight against human trafficking for the past several years through his involvement with Plan India, an organization working on the frontlines to protect children against abuse and exploitation.

“Human slavery in today’s modern world is unacceptable and unpardonable. We should do whatever we can to eradicate it completely,” says Kapoor. “It was clear we must change the mindset of the people in [Bharatpur] – they had to understand there are other options."
'Trapped by Tradition' follows Kapoor to Bharatpur, where he spends time with many young girls and women who followed the socially-accepted tradition of joining the sex trade. One of the women he meets says her brother convinced her to join the business more than 20 years ago and every penny she’s earned is used to support her family. While her story is not an unfamiliar one in Bharatpur, it becomes clear the district’s poverty, illiteracy, family pressures and geographical location all contribute to the perpetuation of trafficking females for family honor and commercial gain.

However, Kapoor notices a growing awareness among the families during this visit – something he did not witness two years ago. Despite having a mother working in the sex trade, one young girl tells Kapoor she wants to continue her education in Mumbai as she dreams of becoming an actress. It is through this increased education that Kapoor believes young girls and women are learning about lifestyle choices they have outside Bharatpur and India’s sex trade.

The Freedom Project blog will be the online home for special coverage of 'Trapped by Tradition.' Leading up to the premiere of the documentary, users will be encouraged to submit questions to Kapoor related to the documentary through the blog, Twitter and the Freedom Project Facebook page.

'Trapped by Tradition' replays Saturday, Sept. 24 at 1500; Sunday, Sept.25 at 0700 and 2100; and Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 0530 and 1330 on CNN International. All times Eastern.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively-syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

The first full promotional spot for the next CNN Freedom Project special has been released by CNN.




Hosted by Anil Kapoor, 'Trapped By Tradition' follows the Bollywood actor's journey to a remote village in North India where nearly all of the women have been sent into prostitution or sex slavery.

The special debuts on September 24.

As we mentioned back in May, CNN International has recruited Demi Moore for The CNN Freedom Project, and will air a new special revealing the heartbreaking stories trafficked children in Nepal.

Nepal's Stolen Children: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary, is scheduled to debut at 1300 GMT this Saturday on CNN International, with repeat airings at 2000 GMT Sunday, 0000 and 0900 GMT Monday.

CNN Press Release: Demi Moore Partners with the CNN Freedom Project in Gripping Documentary Uncovering Nepal’s Sex Trade.

Documentary is latest in CNN Worldwide’s commitment to The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery

Actress and anti-sex trafficking activist Demi Moore has partnered with the CNN Freedom Project to shine a light on the shocking trade of human life in Nepal’s Stolen Children: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary, which premieres Sunday, June 26 at 8 p.m. (ET) on CNN/U.S. The premiere of Nepal’s Stolen Children culminates in CNN’s week-long series “In Depth,” focusing on CNN’s reporting on modern-day slavery across all CNN networks and platforms the week of June 20th.

As a special contributor to the CNN Freedom Project, Moore heads to Nepal to join up with 2010 CNN Hero of the Year Anuradha Koirala and her organization, Maiti Nepal, which has rescued more than 12,000 stolen Nepalese children from sex trafficking since its founding in 1993. Moore is a passionate advocate for victims of human trafficking and through DNA, the organization she co-founded with her husband, Ashton Kutcher, is outspoken about the need to address the demand side of sex trafficking through law enforcement against solicitors, and education and rehabilitation for young victims ensnared by the abusive practices.

Earlier this year, CNN announced it was marshalling its global resources to take on human trafficking with the launch of ‘The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery’. Through this multi-platform initiative, CNN’s reporting aims to expose the horrors of modern-day slavery, highlight the growing efforts to stop the trade and exploitation of human beings and amplify the voices of the victims.

“This is a multi-faceted story, but each side does not carry equal moral value. Modern day slavery is wrong. It needs to be stopped,” said Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International. “CNN has committed our reporters around the world for the year to investigate an end to this global epidemic.”

Each year thousands of Nepalese girls are duped into following men and women to the big city with promises of jobs, but instead they’re forced into the brutal life of prostitution. Nepal’s Stolen Children follows Moore as she speaks with dozens of girls – some as young as 11 years old - who have been trafficked. The girls share harrowing stories of torture and brutality, and some even describe being force-fed growth hormones to make their child-like bodies more curvaceous.

“At the brothel, I was forced to have sex with men and if I argued they would burn cigarettes on my body and beat me with a stick or spill hot water on me. I went with my baby son, but we were separated and when he cried they burned his tongue with a cigarette,” said Radika, one of the rescued girls Moore meets at Maiti Nepal.

The stigma of forced prostitution means many girls face rejection by their families. From the capital of Kathmandu, Moore makes a six-hour journey up into the Himalaya Mountains to a height of 12,000 feet with one young woman rescued from a brothel. Will the family welcome home – or turn their backs on – their returning daughter? Moore also goes to Bhairahawa, which is near the Indian border and a key point of trafficking from Nepal to India, and watches Maiti Nepal’s border guards take the lead in spotting traffickers. Moore finds out first hand how and where Nepalese girls are smuggled into India for the regional sex trade.

Moore meets with Nepal’s Prime Minister, Jhalanath Khanal, to discuss his country’s cultural and criminal problems caused by its widespread sex trafficking. Khanal vows to Moore that he will make efforts to tackle this issue as part of a new federal constitution in Nepal that “provides every kind of right to women.”

He adds, "For a long time in Nepal, there has been a patriarchal domination - that is one of the causes that women are in their unprivileged situation right now but there is dire poverty. Also, about 30% of our population is under dire poverty. These are the determining factors why the women are suffering."

The Freedom Project blog will be the online hub for special coverage of Nepal’s Stolen Children. Leading up to the premiere of the documentary, CNN.com will have opinion pieces on the plight of Nepalese children and sex trafficking. The blog will also include explainers on slavery in Nepal, directing users on how to help, and videos and blog posts that highlight Koirala and Maiti Nepal.

CNN iReport will also issue the second iReport Freedom Project challenge by asking users to make paper airplanes with statistics about slavery and messages of hope for victims. Users will also be able to check for updates across social media on the Freedom Project Facebook page or @CNNFreedom.

Nepal’s Stolen Children replays on CNN/U.S. on Sunday, June 26 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., Monday, June 27 at 2 a.m., Saturday, July 2 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.; and Sunday, July 3 at 2 a.m. All times Eastern.

CNN viewers around the world are being urged to create their own symbol for freedom - in the form of a paper airplane. The idea is part of The CNN Freedom Project's latest iReport assignment - 'Paper airplanes for freedom'.

CNN iReport.com has more details on how viewers can take part in the assignment:

1. Build it. The CNN Freedom Project has used the paper airplane as a symbol of the path towards freedom. We want you to make a paper airplane of your own. On one wing, write one of the three statistics above. On the other wing, write a message of hope for the victims in your own words. Then add your name.

2. Show it. Upload a close-up photo of your airplane. Extra points if you also upload a video of your plane flying through the air.

3. Pass it on. Give your plane to a friend or a stranger. Encourage that person to write their name and pass it on to others.

The deadline for submissions in June 15. You can view a collection of paper airplanes submitted by viewers by scrolling to the bottom of this link.

CNN International's News Stream this week throws the spotlight on the role of technology in ending modern-day slavery, part of the network's CNN Freedom Project.

CNN Press Release: Did you know that there are at least 10 million men, women and children worldwide being sold and forced to work as slaves? CNN is marshalling its global resources for a year-long initiative that shines a spotlight on the horrors of modern-day slavery, amplify the voices of the victims and help unravel the complicated tangle of criminal enterprises trading in human life.

In a week of special coverage starting April 11th for 'The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery', CNN's technology-powered news program 'News Stream' investigates the role of technology in ending this cruel and inhumane treatment of human beings featuring in-depth reports, interviews and analysis.

Host Kristie Lu Stout breaks down the hard data behind human trafficking to interactively show viewers where the key trafficking routes are around the world and who the big offenders are. She highlights what Hollywood couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are doing to raise awareness of modern-day slavery and follow the impact of their campaign online.

'News Stream' also profiles the courageous groups and individuals on the frontlines doing genuinely admirable work. Kristie hears from David Batstone, a modern-day abolitionist who leads the 'Not For Sale' anti-human trafficking campaign. Batstone discusses how he tracks trafficking and saves victims from this horrific way of living.

The program hears how the internet brings people together to stop sex trafficking. Kristie speaks to Daniel Reetz, a blogger who used an online message board to prevent his two Russian female friends from falling into a trafficking scam. 'News Stream' also speaks to Justin Dillon, a rock musician whose desire to put on a benefit concert for anti-slavery charities grew into a "rockumentary" titled 'Call+Response'.

In addition, 'News Stream' shows viewers how they can help. The program looks at what kind of mobile apps can be used to take action and introduces what "slave free" products are. Kristie engages with global viewers via social media and hears how they are taking a stand against human slavery.

This special series on News Stream airs at 8pm Hong Kong time every night this week.

CNN officially luanched the CNN Freedom Project on Monday. Details from CNN are below.

CNN Press Release: CNN is marshalling its global resources for a major initiative that takes on human trafficking with the launch of ‘The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery’, it was announced today by Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.

Throughout 2011, CNN’s reporting will expose the horrors of modern-day slavery, highlight the growing efforts to stop the trade and exploitation of human beings and amplify the voices of the victims.

“It’s our journalism-based assertion that this is the greatest uncovered breaking news story of today, and CNN plans to rip the lid off,” said Maddox. “The inhumanity of those who trade humans is truly shocking and should be stopped. Our coverage will spotlight not just those responsible, but the many courageous groups and individuals on the frontlines doing genuinely admirable work.”

Launching today, CNN International will lead this initiative with special reports on trafficking on every CNNI signature program for the full first week of the ‘The CNN Freedom Project.’ Throughout the year, CNNI will air numerous reports on the subject – with a focus on solution-oriented information and analysis – within specific programs and documentaries, some within the award-winning World’s Untold Stories strand.

Increasing the scope and reach of this work, ‘The CNN Freedom Project’ will air across CNNI and CNN.com in a powerful and distinct online collaboration which will embrace viewer involvement and first-hand accounts. ‘The CNN Freedom Project’ site on CNN.com will educate, motivate and unravel the complicated tangle of criminal enterprises trading in human life.

This week Richard Quest looks at forced labor and corporate responsibility with Dan Henkle and Robert Fisher of Gap, Inc.; Becky Anderson speaks to a Ugandan woman forced into slavery and shows the many forms slavery can take; and Jim Clancy sits down with U.S. President Barack Obama’s anti-trafficking czar Luis CdeBaca and U.N. Ambassador Mira Sorvino about what traffickers looks like and how they operate. Beyond the initial launch, CNNI will commission Connect the World, Quest Means Business, News Stream, World Business Today, The Brief and Prism to utilize its expertise across a number of aspects of trafficking.

CNN’s roster of international correspondents are covering this story live from five continents: From Romania Dan Rivers looks at Romanian girls who were trafficked into a UK-based prostitution ring; in Africa David McKenzie talks to freed slaves from Sudan; Sara Sidner has an exclusive series of reports from northern India where residents were enslaved by landowners; from the U.K. Atika Shubert explores the varying prostitution laws in Sweden and Denmark, and how they compare and contrast. Other correspondents include Stan Grant and Eunice Yoon in China; Jim Bittermann in France; Reza Sayah in Pakistan; Kyung Lah in Japan; Christian Purefoy in Nigeria; Paula Hancocks in South Korea; Matthew Chance in Russia; Colleen McEdwards in the U.S.; Al Goodman in Spain; Nkepile Mabuse in South Africa; Shasta Darlington in Cuba; Kevin Flower in Israel; and Mohammed Jamjoom in the UAE.

CNN.com’s Freedom Project blog will serve as the platform where the audience can dig deeper into the issues and participate in the global discussion and debate around modern-day slavery. The blog will feature a diverse range of voices, from celebrity activists to anti-slavery campaigners. Online at www.cnn.com/freedom, the blog will regularly feature interactive elements to explain the epidemic:

- “The Number,” a weekly graphic that breaks down the numbers related to human trafficking.
- “Solutions,” success stories about people and nations who are fighting slavery.
- “iReport Challenge” – CNN iReport, the network’s user-generated news community, is asking users to take a stand against slavery. As the year goes on, iReport will give users a chance to participate in the global discussion about modern-day slavery through a series of assignments.
- Data Visualizations will also be featured on the blog later in the year to show the scope of the problem, the local and global aspects of human trafficking and discrepancy in consistent numbers.

Content from the Freedom Project blog is also available through CNN’s mobile website.

‘The CNN Freedom Project’ is joining the global conversation on Twitter – @CNNFreedom – and Facebook at www.facebook.com/CNNFreedom. Through these channels, users can connect directly with CNN about this cause, learn more about the organizations standing on the frontlines and see how they are affecting change.

CNN will also collaborate with a number of celebrities and celebrity foundations around the world including Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher; Ricky Martin; Emmanuel Jal; Anil Kapoor; Peter Gabriel and more. Through these geographically-strategic relationships, CNN will develop unique content that highlights the great work that’s being done all over the globe.

CNN en Español is marking the launch of ‘The CNN Freedom Project’ today with special reports and packages to air across its programming lineup.

CNN Student News will also develop resources for teachers and parents as well as lesson plans for students. Student News will also work with the CNN Challenge to develop a game to help inform students about the human slavery issue.

Details about the CNN Freedom Project have been hard to come by since it was first teased earlier this year. As we've previously noted, the initiative, in short, is CNN International's year-long campaign to end modern-day slavery. A 60 second promotional spot for the new initiative is now live on CNN.com.

Inside Cable News managed to get a little bit of information on the (so far) mysterious CNN Freedom Project from a CNN spokesperson today. You can read that here.

Meanwhile, CNN International anchor Kristie Lu Stout tweeted this on Thursday:

Researching a series on human trafficking. Profiles, photos, maps, apps... Pls send any tips my way. Thank you. #nscnn

After I asked whether it was for The CNN Freedom Project, Kristie confirmed via a tweet:

Yup -- it's for the CNN Freedom Project. No details yet. Will let you know when I can. #nscnn

A brief graphic teasing 'The CNN Freedom Project' has been airing on CNN International for a couple of weeks. The only clue as to what the project may be can be found on the text that forms part of the logo.