WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The NPC's Press Freedom Committee hosts 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 Press Club's First Amendment room.

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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.

The panel will examine how regimes are repressing the media and the Internet communications of their people. The moderator will be Frank Smyth, executive director of Global Journalist Security (journalistsecurity.net) and senior advisor for journalist security at the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Panelists include Nada Alwadi, a Bahraini journalist; Abderrahim Foukara, Al Jazeera's Washington bureau chief; Jeff Ghannam, a lawyer, writer and former reporter who has contributed widely to the debate on social media and media development in the Arab region; Clare Morgana Gillis, a US-based freelancer with Mideast experience who was jailed in Libya last year; and Courtney C. Radsch, program manager for the Global Freedom of Expression Campaign.

Assisting the National Press Club in this event are: Freedom House, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the National Endowment for Democracy's Center for International Media Assistance.

If you have any questions contact John M. Donnelly, the Press Freedom Committee chairman and a member of the NPC Board of Governors, at jdonnelly@cq.com.

SOURCE National Press Club

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