Freedom Magazine, published by the Church of Scientology International in the United States, and its 20 affiliated editions of magazines and journals published by Scientology churches in 16 more countries, conduct investigative reporting in the public interest and bring answers to issues of vital interest to society. Search through current and back issues of this Scientology publication in several languages on our site. Contribute your information to ongoing investigations. Read about Freedom Human Rights Award winners and how their work affects us all. Watch Freedom documentary videos. For more information, e-mail Freedom at editor@freedommag.org.

Since the publication of the first Freedom edition in the United Kingdom in 1968, it has been an outlet for the voices that might otherwise never have been heard—human rights advocates and those seeking societal reform. Today, those voices are heard in 11 languages, through 22 different editions of Freedom—each with its own unique perspective and coverage. Common to each is Freedom’s clarion purpose: to advance the cause of human rights.

Read about the history of Freedom magazine and how it advances the cause for human rights here.

A LEGACY OF ABUSE: Past APA Presidents Jules Masserman and Ewen Cameron, and today's APA head Steven Sharfstein exemplify the brutal nature of psychiatry, victimizing the most vulnerable at great profit. Masserman surrendered his medical license in disgrace after patients accused him of sexual abuse. Cameron destroyed people's minds with combinations of drugs, including LSD, and electric shocks. Sharfstein's coercive arsenal also includes electric shocks; human rights violations at facilities he controls are under investigation by Freedom.

Read the full story here.

The May edition of Freedom features a cover story (“The Child Protection Racket”) on how psychiatrists have infiltrated child protective services agencies to the detriment of families.

In particular, in a story that won an Award of Excellence from the Religion Communicators Council entitled “The Dark Mystery of the Duplessis Orphans,” Freedom reveals how tens of thousands of disadvantaged children were transferred from orphanages into asylums in a corrupt ploy to divert funding into psychiatric coffers. This is a mystery going back 50 year which has been uncovered for the first time in this issue of Freedom.

The latest edition of Freedom Magazine, published by the Church of Scientology International, includes the story of Steve Carlson, a 34-year-old Scientologist and entrepreneur who was a key organizer of relief and rebuilding efforts in Banda Aceh and other battered areas of Sumatra following the tsunami that hit that island in December 2004.
The story starts with describing how Steve decided to make this commitment: “A 34-year-old businessman who normally divides his time between offices in Florida and California, Carlson was moved by the enormity of the tsunami tragedy and resolved to do something to help the survivors he saw on the news.”

Freedom tells how, “From a command post in the North Sumatran capital of Medan,” he and the other members of the International Scientology Disaster Relief Team “organized transport, housing and care for victims flooding into the city from outlying disaster sites. ‘We set up our headquarters in a Medan hotel to bring vitally needed organization and relief to the hospitals, which had thousands of people pouring in. The need was so great that we ended up helping to set up several new refugee centers and hospitals in Medan and in Banda Aceh.’”
Freedom goes on to describe the assistance Carlson and his team provided on the island of Nias. After the earthquake on this predominantly Christian island, lying off the west coast of Sumatra — parts of which had been utterly destroyed — the Muslim-oriented North Sumatran government asked Steve and his team of volunteers to “go to the island to assay the damage and make a determination on the extent of aid needed for the survivors.”

The article then covers Carlson’s work in coordinating the teams traveling to decimated Banda Aceh, the way the team “quickly set up aid stations in each location to ensure the needy got vital supplies and immediate attention,“ and includes that the work of the International Scientology Disaster Relief Team was spotlighted in the December 2005 issue of National Geographic.

To read the full details of the work of this extraordinary man, see

The August 2004 edition of Freedom featured an article called “Terror Doctors”. This article dug into and exposed key psychiatrists and psychologists involved in terrorism. As Freedom showed, psychiatrists dominate al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing a political agenda under the guise of, and at the expense of, Islam. In our Solutions section, we highlighted the Church's work to forward the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including Youth for Human Rights International.

124,000 copies of this edition were printed.

That issue is also available online here.

Scientology Volunteer Ministry of Boston

Freedom Magazine has a story about the Scientology Volunteer Ministry of Boston in the most recent issue.

"What catches people's attention about the Scientology Volunteer Ministry is its mission: it acts to undercut escalating violence and crime by teaching youth how to study and learn. Illiteracy closes the door to a prosperous future for inner-city youth, forcing many to turn to gangs, a life of drug use or criminality," said Robert Castagna, the Boston Volunteer Minister who rallied community leaders, educators and a number of his fellow Volunteer Ministers to open the center and launch its Reading and Study Skills Project in April 2004.

Clearwater Freedom

There is a special Clearwater edition to Freedom Magazine.

Clearwater and the greater Tampa Bay area has a very large concentration of Scientologists. This is because the Flag Service Organization, which is offers the highest levels of Scientology training and auditing is in this city.

The Flag Service Organization, or FSO, came to Clearwater in 1975 -- 31 years ago.

It is considered the "Mecca" of Scientology

More on France

France was an imperial power in the 19th Century, with many nations in Africa as colonies.

Having unfairly profited from the labor of its subjects or provide them with the education and technology they would need to raise the standards of their country to a level comparable with the Frenchman, they now have a serious problem. Immigrants from the countries they suppressed for all those years have been pouring into the French cities, creating many problems.

Human Rights in France

Freedom Magazine has a separate web site specifically focusing on human rights in France.

France is one of the most influential countries in the EU. And although it is a cultural center with a very rich history, it has not got a good record on human rights or religious tolerance.

Two hundred years ago, in a fierce reaction against centuries of repression and bad administration, where power and wealth was concentrated in the few and the "common man" had no opportunity for advancement, the revolutionary government "secularized" France. Whereas prior to this there was an official state religion and all had to abide by it, and France waged a civil war against those who held different beliefs, their solution was to outlaw belief and faith.

And in that same tradition, today they outlaw any outward manifestation of faith.

Imagine, an orthodox Jewish man may not teach school in France unless he is willing to abandon an essential part of his faith, the wearing of a yarmulke.

Freedom Magazine Editor Awarded

A good friend of mine recently received an award for his journalism and the riveting story exposing terrible attrocities inflicted on Canadian children.

Here is part of the story:




"Mr. Thomas G. Whittle, senior editor of Freedom Magazine is presented with the DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award of Excellence of the Religion Communicators Council for the story North America’s Crime of the Century, which can be read online at the Freedom Magazine web site.

"DALLAS, TX — Freedom, the investigative journal of the Church of Scientology International, received the Award of Excellence from the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) for the magazine’s in-depth online feature report, “North America’s Crime of the Century.”

"The awards ceremony was a highlight of the RCC’s annual convention, which concluded last weekend in Dallas-Fort Worth. The RCC, an international interfaith association of religion communications and public relations professionals, recognized Freedom’s online report as “an important and moving investigative piece reporting on the inhumane treatment of orphans in Quebec.”

"The award-winning article, co-authored by Freedom Senior Editor Thomas G. Whittle and investigative writer Christine Hahn, exposed abuses on a massive scale against innocent children during the mid-20th century reign of Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis. The fraudulent labeling of the orphans as “mentally ill” or “retarded” opened the door to a battery of psychiatric brutalities, including lobotomies, electro-shock and the massive administration of brain-damaging drugs. The article reveals that up 50,000 innocent children may have died or disappeared in Quebec’s psychiatric institutions as a result of the false labeling and subsequent abuses."

Freedom in Other Countries

Freedom Magazine has 20 affiliated editions, published by Scientology churches in 16 countries.

France is coming more and more under scrutiny as to the effect of its policies of religious intolerance and their effect on racial, ethnic and religious tension.

Modern war is terrorism and retaliation against terrorism.

If countries like France were to revise their official xenophobia upward toward human rights and tolerance maybe we could do something to end this social disease.

Investigative Reporting

I am very suspect of the integrity of most magazines' investigative reporting because they are being paid a lot of money by companies who have far too many skeletons in their closets. To wit the pharmaceutical companies that pay for all the "bi-polar" adds in US News and World Report. Do you really expect this magazine to ever to a truthful expose of the way drug trials are fudged and how patients with negative reactions are discontinued from the trials and so not included in the findings?

New Look for Freedom Online

I noticed there's a new look for the Freedom Magazine online edition. See it at www.freedommag.org