Photos: PFW - Confronting U.S. Challenges

Alan Kotok

May 01, 2025

Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Press Freedom Center director Bill McCarren welcomes event participants and introduces the panel.

Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Mike Balsamo, law enforcement editor at Associated Press and National Press Club president (left) gives opening remarks. Looking on is AP Washington bureau chief Anna Johnson.

Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Anna Johnson, Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press.

Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Confronting U.S. Challenges panel, L-R: Mike Balsamo Associated Press; Anna Johnson, Associated Press; Kate Woodsome, formerly of the Washington Post (speaking); Paul Beckett, Wall Street Journal; Tom Durkin, the Foley Foundation.

Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Paul Beckett, former assistant editor at the Wall Street Journal.

Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Tom Durkin, director of safety education at the Foley Foundation.

Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Kate Woodsome, founder of Invisible Threads, formerly at the Washington Post.

National Press Club President Mike Balsamo led a high-level conversation on May 1, 2025 regarding the escalating threats to press freedom in the United States — from courtroom battles to coordinated online harassment campaigns against journalists, and the growing infringements on independent newsgathering. Balsamo was joined by Tom Durkin, Director of Safety Education at the Foley Foundation, as well as Paul Beckett of the Wall Street Journal, Kate Woodsome of the Washington Post, and others.