Overcoming Global Threats to Independent Journalism

Event

Overcoming Global Threats to Independent Journalism

May 26, 2021

The U.S. Agency for Global Media and the Committee to Protect Journalists are proud to announce the second panel discussion in USAGM’s 2021 Media for Democracy Forum.

With governments around the world grasping for control of information flows, global press freedom continues its dramatic decline. At the same time, the need for accurate information is at an all-time high, with the resurgence of authoritarianism internationally, growing impacts of economic disparities, increased effects of climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to spread.

More and more, smaller, innovative media organizations reporting on and in repressive societies are becoming a thorn in the side of those seeking to suppress fact-based information.

What are the current threats to journalists and independent media that are driving the change the news business model? What have these media organizations done that is different to allow them to better respond to the information needs of their audiences? What unique threats do they face and how have they managed them? And what lies ahead for the global news industry and independent journalism?

This is the second panel for USAGM’s 2021 Media for Democracy Forum. The first panel, “Global Disinformation vs. Democracy—Confronting the Existential Threat” was held May 5 in cooperation with Aspen Digital. Access it here.

USAGM’s Media for Democracy Forum brings together media experts, practitioners, opinion leaders, and policymakers to explore current trends in global media and their impact on democracy, as well as to identify solutions to the biggest threats facing free media.

Event Information

May 26, 2021, 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Online

For more information, please contact USAGM Public Affairs at (202) 920-2000 or by e-mail at pubaff@usagm.gov.

Speakers

On January 20, 2021, President Biden selected Kelu Chao as the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Ms. Chao has worked in U.S. public international media for approximately 40 years. Prior to her appointment as USAGM’s Acting CEO, Ms. Chao served as the Director for Programming for the Voice of America. In this capacity, she oversaw VOA’s production and distribution of television, radio, internet, social media, and mobile content in 47 languages. Ms. Chao has held a number of other senior positions, including serving as Acting Director of VOA from 2015 to 2016 and as the Director of the agency’s former Office of Performance Review, where she was responsible for program review, management efficiency, and research. Ms. Chao began her journalism career as a studio announcer, field reporter, and editor. Later, she was VOA’s Hong Kong Bureau Chief, Chief of its Mandarin Language Service, and Director of VOA’s East Asia Division. A native of Taiwan, Ms. Chao earned a Bachelor’s in Journalism from National Chengchi University and Masters in both Speech Communication and Instructional Media from Kent State University. Besides journalism, she has a passion for music and is a trained classical pianist.
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Joel Simon has been executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists since 2006. Simon has led the organization through a period of expansion, notably in recent years, growing CPJ’s network of global correspondents, creating a new North America program focused on press freedom advocacy in the United States, and helping to develop an Emergency Response Team focused on safety and direct assistance to journalists in crisis around the world. Simon has participated in CPJ missions from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Under his leadership, CPJ has been honored with numerous awards, including the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights, a News & Documentary Emmy, and the 2018 Chatham House Prize, given for the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year. Simon has written widely on press freedom issues for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian. and The Wall Street Journal. He is regular columnist for Columbia Journalism Review. Simon has appeared on international broadcasters including CNN, the BBC, NPR, FOX News, and Al Jazeera, and has participated in speeches and panels from United Nations to the Newseum, and at academic institutions ranging from Stanford University to Beloit College. Prior to joining CPJ in 1997 as Americas program coordinator, Simon worked for a decade as a freelance journalist in Latin America. He covered the Guatemalan civil war, the Zapatista uprising in Southern Mexico, the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the economic turmoil in Cuba following the collapse of the Soviet Union. A graduate of Amherst College and Stanford University, he is the author of Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge (Sierra Club Books, 1997), The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom (Columbia University Press 2015); and We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages, and Ransom (Columbia Global Reports 2018).
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Min Mitchell has been RFA’s Managing Director for East Asia since February 2017. In 2020, Mitchell launched RFA’s innovative new digital news magazine, WhyNot | Wainao, which seeks to engage a younger generation of Mandarin speakers inside China and around the world. Before joining RFA, she previously served as Washington Bureau Chief for Taiwan Television (TTV). She began her career as a political reporter and news anchor in Taipei for TTV from 1996-2000. A native of Taiwan, Mitchell received a BA in Russian language and literature from National Chengchi University in Taipei, and she holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas in Austin.
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Before he started working in lapatilla.com in 2010, Jesus worked with the Multilateral Development Bank, then on the financial private sector and personal entrepreneurship. In 2010 he co-founded and began serving as the General Manager of lapatilla.com. He also co-founded and is General Manager of the entertainment site, elfarandi.com 2013. He collaborates for multiple news and information sites in Venezuela including Descifrado.com (since 2016), albertonews.com (since 2020), and most recently monitoreamos.com. He has also served as an advisor and helped to develop and launch the site presidenciave.com 2019, the official site of the Venezuelan Interim Government. Currently, Jesus manages 60+ journalists in Venezuela (Caracas and Regions), Colombia and the USA.
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Maxence Melo is a Tanzanian Online Human Rights Defender and Executive Director of Jamii Forums, an NGO that promotes and advocates for Civil and Digital Rights, Social Justice, Accountability and Good Governance. He is enthusiastic, creative and passionate about the promotion and protection of Online Freedom of Expression and Privacy. He is also a digital innovator and an “Information Architect” who found JamiiForums.com, the most visited website in Tanzania. JamiiForums.com exists to inform rather than to censor, to unite rather than divide, to debate rather than ignore, and that will protect those who are courageous enough to expose the truth that the powerful would rather hide. Maxence believes that Whistleblowers play critical roles in any system. As a certified Digital Security expert, he helps Human Rights Defenders in Tanzania to remain safe while using digital platforms. Professionally as a Civil Engineer, he worked for 8 years as a Building Economist with a Class I Construction Company in Tanzania. He supervised mega projects in Tanzania between 2002 and 2010. Maxence has played an enormous role in making the Jamii Forums platform revolutionize online information, the state of Freedom of expression, promotion of transparency and accountability in Tanzania. He is also a member of the Forum for African Investigative Reporters. He is an alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) by the U.S. Department of State (2017). At an international level, Maxence has been recognized by the African Union as one of the top 3 Leading African Innovators for Change in 2018 but also by H.E President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria for strengthening the viability of Whistle-blowing Policy tools in Africa. He is a recipient of various Human Rights Defenders awards including the 2019 International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Online Freedom of Speech Champion in Tanzania 2018 by Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC) and the Daudi Mwangosi Award (2019) by the Union of Tanzania Press Clubs - an award for Promotion of Media Freedom in Tanzania. He is married with three children.
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Nora Younis is the founding editor of the independent Egyptian news website Al-Manassa, which has been blocked by the government of Egypt for four years. Before founding Al-Manassa in 2015, Nora ran the online daily Al-Masry Al-Youm and also worked for the Washington Post. She is a lifelong human-rights champion, journalist and blogger. Last June, Nora was arrested by police attached to the Egyptian interior ministry. They seized cameras and computers from Al-Manassa’s offices and accused her of operating an unlicensed website. Al-Manassa points out they submitted all the documents needed for a license to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation but have never received a reply. In 2008 Nora won a Human Rights First award for her work using new media tools to expose human rights violations and police brutality. She started blogging in 2005, focusing on democracy protest movements in Egypt. Before we had Twitter, she would send mass text messages to human rights activists, political groups, and journalists, informing them of rallies, arrests, state violence and police brutality. As a blogger, she broke the 2005 story on police brutality breaking up an improvised Sudanese refugee camp at the UNHCR headquarters in Cairo in which dozens of refugees were killed. This was translated internationally and became the basis for multiple lawsuits and human rights reports. One of her most recognized tweets was her video of a textile workers’ strike in September 2007 that soon grew into a nationwide movement known as the April 6th Strike.
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Rezaian is a writer for Global Opinions. He served as The Post's correspondent in Tehran from 2012 to 2016. He spent 544 days unjustly imprisoned by Iranian authorities until his release in January 2016. He is also a CNN contributor. In 2017 he was a Harvard University Neiman Fellow and from 2016-2018 a Terker Distinguished Fellow at George Washington University. He has a BA in Cultural Studies from Eugene Lang College, New School University.
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