The State of Journalism Globally: How Authoritarian Regimes Control Information

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• published: 09 Jun 2016
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This panel discussion focused on the state of journalism around the world – especially in authoritarian states and developing countries where there is a push-back on democracy. The panel of high-level journalists discussed how regimes manipulate information and use or control media to consolidate and expand political and economic power. China, Russia, and the Middle East were of particular interest. This type of media control has an effect not only on political discourse but also on the information provided to citizens on economic and business conditions in a country. In places like China and Russia, and Latin America, can investors trust data and information from the media or the government? Panelists also discussed how the environment for journalists in many countries limits the ability of the media to play its role of providing information that helps citizens hold governments accountable, and the challenges this poses for democratic development. Panelists: Deborah Amos covers the Middle East for NPR News. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. In 2009, Amos won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University and in 2010 was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Life Time Achievement Award by Washington State University. Amos was part of a team of reporters who won a 2004 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for coverage of Iraq. A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1991-1992, Amos was returned to Harvard in 2010 as a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Amos is also the author of Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East (Public Affairs, 2010) and Lines in the Sand: Desert Storm and the Remaking of the Arab World (Simon and Schuster, 1992) Amos began her career after receiving a degree in broadcasting from the University of Florida at Gainesville. Follow Amos on Twitter @deborahamos Gina Chon is Washington Columnist on ReutersBreakingviews. Chon joined Reuters earlier this year from the Financial Times, where she was the enforcement and regulatory correspondent in Washington, most recently focused on white-collar crime and cybersecurity. Before that, Chon was the corporate reporter for Quartz and spent seven years at the Wall Street Journal in New York, Baghdad and Detroit, covering mergers and acquisitions, war, and cars. Before joining the Journal, she was an editor and trainer in Iraq for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. In this position Chon was responsible for training Iraqi journalists to help build an independent media in Iraq. In 2001, Chon became the Seoul correspondent for the Daily Deal newspaper, Fortune Magazine and Asiaweek Magazine. She was previously an associate editor at the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. She co-authored a book about the Khmer Rouge, titled Behind the Killing Fields, based on interviews with the top surviving Khmer Rouge leader and the experiences of her Cambodian co-author, who was a victim of the Khmer Rouge regime. Follow Chon on Twitter @GinaChon Jim Sciutto in Chief National Security Correspondent for CNN. He served previously as Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke. Prior to his time in China, Sciutto was ABC News' Senior Foreign Correspondent reporting from more than 50 countries around the globe, including more than a dozen assignments each in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. In 2010, Sciutto won the Edward R. Murrow award for his reporting from Iran during the 2009 election protests. In 2008 he was awarded the George Polk Award for Television Reporting for his work from Myanmar, as well as a Citation for Excellence from the Overseas Press Club. He won Emmy awards in 2004 and 2005 for best story in a regularly scheduled newscast, covering northern Iraq for "Iraq: Where Things Stand." He is also author of a book on the driving forces behind Islamic radicalization, titled Against Us: The New Face of America's Enemies in the Muslim World. Prior to joining ABC News, Sciutto was Hong Kong-based correspondent for Asia Business News. Follow Sciutto on Twitter @jimsciutto