NPC event to explore how post 9/11 anti-terror laws are used globally to crush press freedom

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Feb 21, 2013, 09:34 ET

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Press Club's Freedom of the Press Committee plans to hold a moderated panel discussion on how laws enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are being used to crush press freedom on Tuesday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Club's conference rooms.

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The event is free and open to the public. To sign up, click here.

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 the government.

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.

The panel will be moderated by Press Freedom Committee Vice Chair Rachel Oswald and be followed by a question and answer session.
Panelists include:

Letta Tayler, senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch
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

SOURCE National Press Club