The National Press Club

The National Press Club voiced its strong concern May 10 over the expected imminent sentencing of imprisoned Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega, who is accused of violating the country’s draconian anti-terrorism law as a result of his high-profile advocacy of press freedom.
Sentencing of Nega could come as soon as Friday. There is the chance he could be sentenced to death or ordered to spend 15 to 20 years behind bars under Ethiopia’s 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation.

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A May 1 panel at the club, the first collaboration of its kind with the Overseas Press Club of America, spotlighted the Obama administration’s war on leaks.

The war is being waged, panelists said, on multiple fronts: a record number of prosecutions of government officials for disclosing information; alleged eavesdropping on journalists’ communications; and suing a New York Times reporter to force him to reveal a source.

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Freedom House and the National Press Club plan to join forces on World Press Freedom Day, May 3, for the launch of Freedom House's annual survey of press freedom around the globe.

The event will take place in the Press Club's Holeman Lounge on Thursday, May 3 at 9:30 a.m. Admission is free. A continental breakfast will be available.

Freedom House will release the findings of its annual survey, "Freedom of the Press 2012: Breakthroughs and Pushback in the Middle East," and panelists from Egypt, Mexico and Hungary will discuss the changes underway in their countries.

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A jailed Ethiopian journalist will be recognized on May 1 for his fight to advance press freedom in his country – an effort that was elevated by the National Press Club.

The PEN American Center, a literary and human rights organization, will present its top prize, the 2012 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, to Eskinder Nega at a gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

“The key to him winning that award was the National Press Club helping him,” said Jason McLure, Nega’s friend and colleague. “It shed light on this case.”

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A panel of noted journalists and writers, plus a former spokesman for the Justice Department, will discuss the Obama administration's crusade against leaks of government secrets -- and against some of the journalists who report them-- at 6:30 p.m. on May 1 at the National Press Club.

The discussion is co-sponsored by the Overseas Press Club of America and the National Press Club.

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The National Press Club today called on Iran’s government to set free a jailed blogger, his mother and all journalists and other citizens who have suffered retaliation merely for exercising the basic human right of self-expression.

In 2010, the Club awarded the Iranian blogger Kouhyar Goudarzi its John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award after Goudarzi had been put in Teheran’s notorious Evin Prison on trumped-up charges. Goudarzi was freed in December of that year. But he was jailed again last July, and his mother, Parvin Mokhtare, was also detained.

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The National Press Club and 46 other journalism organizations joined in a letter Monday to the Pentagon urging greater openness in its court martial proceedings in general and particularly in the case of Bradley Manning, the Army private accused of releasing classified information to the Wikileaks organization.

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National Press Club President Theresa Werner expressed outrage about the deaths of two journalists Feb. 22 during a shelling in the Syrian-opposition stronghold of Homs.

American journalist Marie Colvin, working for the Sunday Times of London, and Remi Ochlik, a French photojournalist, were both killed in the attack, according to media reports citing a French spokeswoman. Shells hit a building Syrian rebels had turned into an impromptu press center, according to reports quoting a message to Sunday Times employees from owner Rupert Murdoch.

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The revolutions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa have brought the promise of more open and accountable governments and societies but that outlook has dimmed, as autocratic regimes in the region have responded to the so-called “Arab Spring” by clamping down hard on reporters and citizens communicating on the web, a panel of experts said a National Press Club Freedom of the Press event Feb. 14.

“Wait a few more years before you call it ‘spring,’” said a skeptical Abderrahim Foukara, Washington bureau chief of Al Jazeera Arabic, one of the panelists.

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The National Press Club's Press Freedom Committee plans to host a panel to examine the latest Mideast trends on repression of expression on Tuesday, Feb. 14, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the NPC's First Amendment room.

With a violent crackdown raging in Syria and the future of countries from Libya to Egypt still uncertain, the Mideast remains a top focus of world news. But more than a year after the start of the Arab Spring, reporters and citizens trying to document these events remain under siege.

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