The U.S. government’s aggressive war on leaks and digital
surveillance poses a global challenge for the free flow of news. The
primary battlegrounds for press freedom used to be contained within the
borders of authoritarian states. While those battles continue, U.S.
policies have chilled the conversation between journalists and their
sources and raised doubts about the U.S. commitment to press freedom
online.
 
The Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) comprehensive annual assessment Attacks on the Press
describes the threats to press freedom and explores strategies to
safeguard the free flow of information around the world. Jacob Weisberg,
chairman of the Slate Group and member of CPJ’s board of directors,
examines the challenges in covering national security in a post-Snowden
era. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon analyzes the global damaging
effects to press freedom caused by U.S. mass surveillance programs.

Joel Simon joined CPJ in 1997 as Americas program coordinator and was named executive director in 2006. He has written for Slate, Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Review of Books, World Policy Journal, Asahi Shimbun, and The Times of India. 

Jacob Weisberg previously served as editor of Slate magazine for six years, stepping down in 2008. He is the author of The Bush Tragedy and has also worked for The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Financial Times, and Newsweek.

Speakers:
Joel Simon,
Jacob Weisberg