Living in a digital age offers countless advantages including speed of communication, vast networking capabilities, and an abundance of readily available information. However, this technological era also has its challenges. One of those challenges, being an increased threat to press and expression freedoms. In our new media landscape and current political environment, traditional media outlets are struggling to find ways to preserve their mission to inform the public with accurate information.

The Evolving Threats to Press Freedom panel at this year’s SXSW conference aims to discuss current threats to press freedoms as well as possible solutions for media outlets. In anticipation of this panel, we sat down with Ann Cooper, CBS Professor of Professional Practice in Intl Journalism at Columbia University. Before becoming a professor, Ann Cooper spent several years as a foreign correspondent for NPR. One of the most historical events Cooper witnessed was the end of Apartheid in South Africa.

In Africa, I was one of only two people that NPR had covering the whole continent. The story in South Africa was a good news story, it was the end of Apartheid. I was there for the first all-race election and Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. – Cooper 

However, she spent the majority of her time overseas in the former Soviet Union.

“The changes there were more unexpected. In the former Soviet Union, everyday something happened that made your jaw drop. Some atrocity or political reform that nobody expected,” Cooper said.

After returning to the United States, Cooper became the Executive Director at the Committee To Protect Journalists for 8 years.

“That was a job that really kind of grew out of my experiences as a foreign correspondent, because when I was working abroad, like in the Soviet Union there were a lot of restrictions. It was much more difficult than working in the U.S. What I could see everywhere that I traveled was as difficult as it might be for me, occasionally risky, it was even more risky for the local journalists.”

The Committee To Protect Journalists is an organization that provides support for journalists around the world who’ve been penalized, in one way or another, for reporting the truth.

“The advocacy on their behalf provides some support for things like medical bills because they’ve beaten up because of a story they wrote. There’s some assistance to families whose major breadwinner is a journalist in prison because of their work. That was a mission that nobody had to explain to me. I could see why it was so important,” Cooper said.

When asked about the current state of press freedoms in the U.S., Cooper voiced her concerns.

“It feels like things are deteriorating. For one thing, the United States used to stand up and chastise people over bad press freedom records. Under Donald Trump, that really doesn’t happen anymore. Trump’s constant criticism of the press…calling media outlets ‘fake news’ you can see echos and imitations of that in other leaders around the world. So, the atmosphere is certainly deteriorated.”

She hopes the U.S. government can retain its integrity in the press.

The U.S. government should resume its traditional role of being a powerful advocate for human rights including free speech and press freedom all around the world. I don’t see under the current administration that happening. – Cooper

Lastly, Cooper touched on the advantages and disadvantages social media present to the journalism field.

“Social media has some really great benefits for journalists. It can be used as a reporting tool to help you find sources and reach out to people who are on the scene of a breaking news event. But it feels like it’s becoming increasingly difficult to use social media because there’s so much out there that’s false. So much that’s generated by bots.”

Cooper says one of the most important skills a journalist needs in this digital age has to be ensuring the validity of the information obtained from social media and the internet.

To hear more from Award-Winning Journalist Ann Cooper and her co-panelists from the Al Jazeera Media Network, check out the Evolving Threats to Press Freedom panel at this year’s SXSW Interactive Conference.

Wednesday, March 14
11:00am-12:00pm
JW Marriott – Salon FG

Find out more: Evolving Threats to Press Freedom

Feature Image Courtesy: CNN