London, 15 January 2018 – A delegation of global press freedom groups will undertake an unprecedented mission to the United States, reflecting concerns about threats to journalists and heightened anti-press rhetoric. The mission will coincide with the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration and will leverage the first year’s findings of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which will be released at an event at the Newseum, Washington D.C.
From January 15 to 17, leaders of six organisations — Article 19, CPJ, Index on Censorship, IFEX, and International Press Institute — will conduct a fact-finding visit to Houston, Texas, and the Missouri cities of Columbia and St. Louis. They will then travel to Washington for the Assessment of Press Freedom event at the Newseum on Wednesday, January 17, at 7:00 p.m. EST, and meetings with high-level policymakers on January 18 and 19.
The Press Freedom Tracker website collects data on the arrests of journalists, the seizure of their equipment, physical attacks, border stops, and other incidents.
Index on Censorship and Article 19 routinely participate in missions to countries of concern for press freedom. Recently this has included trips to Ukraine and Turkey. In 2016, Index produced a report “It’s Not Just Trump,” which highlighted the varying threats to media freedom there.
The partner organisations hope the mission will help bring attention to the deterioration of press freedom in the U.S., its impact on media freedom globally, and show solidarity with the journalist community.
Note to Editors:
Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is a London-based non-profit organisation that publishes work by censored writers and artists and campaigns against censorship worldwide. Since its founding in 1972, Index on Censorship has published some of the greatest names in literature in its award-winning quarterly magazine, including Samuel Beckett, Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, Arthur Miller and Kurt Vonnegut. It also has published some of the world’s best campaigning writers from Vaclav Havel to Elif Shafik.
Article 19
Article 19 is a human rights organisation which defends and promotes freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide.
Media contacts:
Please contact Sean Gallagher at Index on Censorship on [email protected] or ARTICLE 19’s press team on [email protected] for further information or to arrange interviews with mission participants.
Please contact [email protected] to to obtain press credentials for the January 17 Newseum event, which will be livestreamed at 7:00 p.m. EST at www.newseum.org/event.
