The New International Media, Filling a Vacuum or Pushing An Agenda?

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Apr 16, 2013, 12:23 ET

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Press Club's Press Freedom Committee will hold a panel discussion on May 2, the night before World Press Freedom Day, about the growing role of media organizations that are at least partly government-funded.

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As the press in most western democracies has had to retrench in recent years, cutting staffs and abandoning foreign (and domestic) bureaus, there is one bright spot for foreign coverage: Al Jazeera, CCTV and Voice of Russia Radio have vibrant bureaus in Washington and elsewhere. However, their growth has also caused considerable heartburn, because all are at least partially funded by governments not known for their respect for press freedom.

The National Press Club is inviting representatives of all three news organizations to talk about their presence and their goals in the United States and elsewhere--and just how free their reporters are to cover the news.

The event is scheduled on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, a commemoration created in 1993 by the U.N. General Assembly "to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession."

What: "The New International Media: Filling A Vacuum or Pushing An Agenda?"

When: Thursday, May 2, 2013. 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m.

Where: The conference rooms of the National Press Club, at 529 14th Street, N.W. on the 13th floor.

Light refreshments will be served.

The event is free but space is limited. Register here.

Introductory remarks will be delivered by Angela Greiling Keane, reporter with Bloomberg News and president of the National Press Club.

The panel will be moderated by Frank Sesno, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, special CNN correspondent and former CNN anchor and Washington bureau chief.

Panelists will include Rosiland Jordan, State Department correspondent with Al Jazeera English – The Americas; Mike Walter, general news anchor on the nightly program Biz Asia America on CCTV-America and host of the network's flagship weekly talk show, "The Heat;" Jamila Bey, journalist and host with Voice of Russia Radio and a former producer at National Public Radio; and Max Fisher, foreign affairs blogger with the Washington Post and former international affairs editor for TheAtlantic.com.

The National Press Club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists, supports press freedom and government transparency around the world. The Club condemns policies designed to intimidate reporters and editors. The right to gather information and inform the public is a basic human freedom.

SOURCE National Press Club