Video: How Post 9/11 Antiterror Laws are Being Used Globally to Crush Press Freedom

On March 12, 2013, the National Press Club's Freedom of the Press Committee held a moderated panel discussion on how laws enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are being used to crush press freedom.

Following the Sept. 11 attacks and the opening of the United States' war on terror, dozens of countries have implemented sweeping anti-terrorism laws, frequently at the behest of Washington. But analyses by human rights and journalist watchdog groups have found that these foreign counterterrorism laws are increasingly being used as the go-to tool to target and imprison journalists who write things deemed critical of governments.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a record-high 231 journalists were in prison in 2012. Of that number, at least 132 journalists were imprisoned on anti-state charges such as terrorism, treason and subversion. Notable standouts in this category include Turkey, which at present is calculated to have incarcerated at least 42 journalists and four media workers.

Here in the United States, both the Bush and Obama administrations have sought to justify their censorship of key national security information on the grounds that release would weaken counterterrorism operations.

The panel was moderated by NPC Press Freedom Committee Vice Chair Rachel Oswald and was followed by a question and answer session.

Panelists include:

Mohamed Keita, Africa advocacy coordinator for the Committee to Project Journalists

Frank Jannuzi, deputy executive director of advocacy, policy and research for Amnesty International USA

Mark Feldstein, professor of broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism

Watch video of the full event below: