Joel Simon, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, will deliver a talk on the state of press freedom in the U.S. and around the world on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at Ithaca College. The lecture will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Textor 101. This event is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the Park Center for Independent Media.
Simon has been the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists since 2006, and before that headed up the Committee’s Americas program. He has written extensively on press freedom issues for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and dozens of other publications around the world. He is a regular columnist for Columbia Journalism Review and the author of three books: “Endangered Mexico: An Environment on Edge”; “The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom”; and “We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Hostages and Ransom.”
Since joining the Committee to Protect Journalists, Simon helped lead the organization through a period of expansion by launching the Global Campaign Against Impunity, establishing a journalist assistance program, and spearheading the organization’s defense of press freedom in the digital space through the creation of its dedicated technology Program.
Prior to joining the Committee, he worked for a decade as a freelance journalist in Latin America. He covered the Guatemalan Civil War, the Zapatista uprising in Southern Mexico, the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement and the economic turmoil in Cuba following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Park Center for Independent Media, launched in 2008, is a center for the study of journalism-oriented media outlets that create and distribute content outside traditional corporate systems and news organizations. The Center examines the impact of independent media on journalism, democracy, society and participatory cultures. The Center’s mission is to engage media producers and students in dialogue and action about independent media, especially U.S.-based outlets producing content, across single- or multiple-content platforms, on issues such as equity, social justice and sustainability.