2018 World Press Freedom Day with BBG, GWU & CPJ

Event

2018 World Press Freedom Day with BBG, GWU & CPJ

April 25, 2018

Ahead of World Press Freedom Day join the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), The George Washington University School of Media & Public Affairs and the Committee to Protect Journalists for a lunch conversation on challenges and new trends in international media freedom, access to information, and journalist safety.

Registration and lunch will be followed by a program starting promptly at 12:30 PM.

Event Information

April 25, 2018, 11:45 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

The George Washington University
Elliott School of International Affairs City View Room, 7th Floor
1957 E Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20052

This #BBGWPFD event is free, but space is limited and registration is required.

Speakers

John F. Lansing joined USAGM as CEO and Director in September 2015. Lansing’s previous experience includes nine years as President of Scripps Networks, where he is credited with guiding the company to become a leading developer of unique content across various media platforms including television, digital, mobile and publishing. Most recently, Lansing was President and Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), a marketing association comprised of 90 of the top U.S. and Canadian cable companies and television programmers. There, Lansing oversaw the development of business strategies and marketing initiatives that position cable television companies for continued growth as they compete with emerging digital content platforms. Lansing also brings a deep understanding of journalism from roles as an award-winning Photojournalist and Field Producer, Assignment Manager, Managing Editor, and News Director at several television stations earlier in his career.
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Greta Van Susteren
Contributor, VOA
Patrick Butler
Vice President, Programs International Center for Journalists
Michael De Dora
Washington Advocacy Manager, Committee to Protect Journalists
Paul Danahar
North America Bureau Editor, BBC
Bay Fang
Executive Editor, Radio Free Asia
Chris Decherd
Service Chief, VOA Khmer Service
Vuthy Khin Huot
Deputy Director, RFA Khmer Service
Amanda Bennett is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, investigative journalist and editor and was named Director of the Voice of America in March 2016. Through 2013, she was Executive Editor, Bloomberg News, where she created and ran a global team of investigative reporters and editors. She was also co-founder of Bloomberg News’ Women’s project. She was editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer from June 2003 to November 2006, and prior to that was editor of the Herald-Leader in Lexington, Kentucky. She also served for three years as managing editor/projects for The Oregonian in Portland. Bennett served as a Wall Street Journal reporter for more than 20 years. A graduate of Harvard College, she held numerous posts at the Journal, including auto industry reporter in Detroit in the late 70s and early 80s, Pentagon and State Department reporter, Beijing correspondent, management editor/reporter, national economics correspondent and, finally, chief of the Atlanta bureau until 1998, when she moved to The Oregonian. Bennett shared the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting with her Journal colleagues, and in 2001 led a team from The Oregonian to a Pulitzer for public service. Projects by the Bloomberg Projects and Investigations team won numerous awards, including Loeb, Polk, Barlett & Steele, Headliners, Society of American Business Editors and Writers and Overseas Press Club Awards. She was a member of the board of the Pulitzer Prizes from 2003 to 2011 and served as co-Chair of the Pulitzer Board in 2010. She also served on the boards of the Loeb Awards, the American Society of News Editors; and of the Fund for Investigative Journalism as well as the board of advisers of the Temple University Press; the board of directors of Axis Philly, a nonprofit local news site; and of the Rosenbach Museum, a Philadelphia museum of rare books. She is the author of six books including “In Memoriam” (1998), co-authored with Terence B. Foley; “The Man Who Stayed Behind” (1993), co-authored with Sidney Rittenberg; “Death of the Organization Man” (1991) and “The Quiet Room” (1996), co-authored with Lori Schiller. “The Cost of Hope,” her memoir of the battle she and Foley, her late husband, fought against his kidney cancer, was published in June 2012 by Random House. Together with her husband, Donald Graham, she is a co-founder of TheDream.US, which provides college scholarships to the children of undocumented immigrants.
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Ambassador Alberto M. Fernandez is President of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN). MBN provides news and information in Arabic to the Middle East and North Africa. As President of MBN, Amb. Fernandez oversees and manages two television networks (Alhurra and Alhurra-Iraq); two radio streams Sawa Iraq and Sawa Levant; and all of MBN’s digital and social media properties including, Alhurra.com, RadioSawa.com, Irfaasawtak.com, AlSaha.com and MaghrebVoices.com. According to international research firms such as Gallup, Alhurra and Radio Sawa have an unduplicated weekly reach of more than 25 million people in the Middle East. Sponsored by the U.S. government, MBN’s mission is to broadcast accurate, timely and relevant news and information about the region, the world and the United States to a broad, Arabic-speaking audience. Prior to joining MBN, Amb. Fernandez was Vice-President of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and is a member of the board of directors at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security (CCHS) at George Washington University. He is also a non-resident Fellow in Middle East Politics and Media at the TRENDS research and advisory center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He was a Foreign Service Officer from 1983 to 2015 and served as the State Department’s Coordinator for the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications from 2012 to 2015. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea and U.S. Charge d’Affaires to Sudan. He held senior public diplomacy positions at the U.S. embassies in Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria, Guatemala, Kuwait, and in the Department’s Near East Affairs (NEA) Bureau. Amb. Fernandez was a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, he was a recipient of a 2008 Presidential Meritorious Service Award, the 2006 Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy, a 2003 Superior Honor Award for his work in Afghanistan, among many other awards. A graduate of the University of Arizona (B.A. and M.A.) and the Defense Language Institute, he served in the U.S. Army and came to the United States as a refugee from Cuba in 1959. He has published in Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, the AFPC World Almanac of Islamism, Defense Dossier, Journal of International Security Affairs, Providence, WINEP Policy Brief, the Foreign Service Journal, “Cipher Brief,” MEMRI, Brookings “Markaz,” Georgetown Cornerstone, ReVista: the Harvard Review of Latin America, Middle East Quarterly, the Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society (JAAS), and lectured and debated on U.S. foreign policy in numerous international and academic venues. He speaks fluent Spanish and Arabic in addition to English.
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As USAGM Chief Strategy Officer, Dr. Haroon Ullah oversaw the Office of Policy and Research (OPR), including the elevation of USAGM’s policy engagement in the interagency, strategic planning and strategic initiatives functions and positioning within the broader U.S. government and with key stakeholders. In addition, he oversaw USAGM's Office of Internet Freedom (OIF), which focuses on the technological and innovative efforts to circumvent internet censorship around the globe. Ullah’s main responsibility was to lead USAGM to become a more strategically relevant agency within the national security, foreign affairs, internet censorship and global media spheres. Ullah joined USAGM from the Department of State, where he worked on Secretary Tillerson’s Policy Planning Staff covering digital innovation, public diplomacy and public/private partnerships. He previously advised three Secretaries of State, traveled with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke’s Afghanistan/Pakistan team and started the first-ever public diplomacy countering violent extremism office at any American Embassy in the world as the Director of the Community Engagement Office at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan. He is also a visiting professor at Georgetown University and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ullah has also served as a senior Harvard University Belfer Fellow and International Director of SAB Negotiation, overseeing private sector deals worth over $350 million. Ullah has an MA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a joint Ph.D. from Harvard and the University of Michigan, and he was a William J. Fulbright Fellow, a Harvard University Presidential Scholar, and a Woodrow Wilson Public Service Fellow. His award-winning books include Vying for Allah’s Vote (Georgetown University Press), The Bargain from the Bazaar (Public Affairs Books), and recently released Digital World War (Yale University Press), which focuses on new uses for technology, transmedia and digital content.
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Joan Mower is head of development and international media training at USAGM. She oversees special broadcasting and training projects around the world. In 2007-2008, she worked at the Department of State, handling public affairs on Sudan and Darfur. She has done extensive media training and public speaking in the United States and abroad. Previously, she was the acting director Public Relations at VOA and the Communications Coordinator at the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). She joined USAGM after serving as the director of international programs/Africa and Latin America at The Freedom Forum/Newseum. At the foundation, she promoted press freedom, working with journalists, governments and the private sector. She is also a former Foreign Service Officer. Mower began her career as a journalist with UPI. In Washington, she worked for the Associated Press, covering the State Department, Congress and the White House. She graduated from the University of California/Berkeley with a degree in political science, and she holds an M.A. in African Studies from Johns Hopkins SAIS.
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2018 World Press Freedom Day with BBG, GWU & CPJ

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