Featured Topic - Torture

In partnership with Mother Jones Magazine, this week's featured topic is Torture  and related human rights abuses worldwide. Terrorist attacks — -- and the different ways in which national governments have responded to them -- have led to vigorous debate about what constitutes torture and abuse, and what are legally sanctioned responses to terror.

For a good introduction to this topic, read and review some of the featured articles in this month's Mother Jones . Then review other recommended stories that extend their coverage about this important human rights issue. Also, check out the reviews submitted by Stephanie Lowe (link), part of the Mother Jones editorial team.

It has been four years since the pictures of Abu Ghraib shocked the nation. While torture is admittedly not a rosy or "fun" topic, it is an important moral and ethical compass. How a nation and its citizens approach , define and react to torture says something about their collective values and view of human nature. Our partner in the search for good journalism on this topic is Mother Jones.

Not only is their community going to help us search the news for good quality journalism on this important topic, but their editorial team is leading the charge, with a dozen investigative reports, first-person accounts, audio, photos, and stats about the state of torture. To review these articles, just go to our source page on Mother Jones and check the stories that are up for review.

If you ever wanted an overview of torture - the Mother Jones story on "The Final Act of Abu Ghraib"  is a good place to start. From there - browse the other stories at NewsTrust in the torture topic and then scour the Web for more journalism about torture.

This is a difficult subject, both to focus on and to gauge how a news organization reports on it. Our best advice is read what you can, let it wash over you - and then use our review tool to guide you, that's what it is here for.

We can all wish that torture will never happen again, but on a long enough time line, the probability of that is most likely zero. So we should be informed and knowledgeable about torture and its history. We hope this news hunt for the best journalism on torture and human rights abuses will help us all reach the goal of making more informed decisions as citizens.