National Press Club hosts Feb. 14 panel to assess repression of expression in Mideast

The NPC's Press Freedom Committee hosts a panel to examine the latest Mideast trends on repression of expression on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 9:30am in the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Restaurant.

More than a year ago, uprisings in several Mideast countries triggered what has come to be called the Arab Spring. But when it comes to freedom of the press and the Internet, it has been a chilling period in many parts of the region. Reporters and citizens have been spied on, beaten, imprisoned and even killed merely for telling the truth about what is happening in their countries.

The Feb. 14 panel will examine the repression with the help of moderator Frank Smyth, executive director of Global Journalist Security (journalistsecurity.net) and senior advisor for journalist security at the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Panelists include Nada Alwadi, a Bahraini journalist; Abderrahim Foukara, Al Jazeera’s Washington bureau chief; Jeff Ghannam, a lawyer, writer and former reporter who has contributed widely to the debate on social media and media development in the Arab region; and Clare Morgana Gillis, a US-based freelancer with Mideast experience who was jailed in Libya last year.

Assisting the National Press Club in this event are: Freedom House, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the National Endowment for Democracy’s Center for International Media Assistance.

If you have any questions contact John M. Donnelly, Press Freedom Committee chairman and member of NPC Board of Governors, at [email protected].