Kathleen Carroll has been elected chair of the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists, succeeding Sandra Mims Rowe and vowing to keep up the fight against threats to journalists abroad and from public officials trying to undermine them at home.
Before Donald Trump was elected President, CPJ declared the Republican candidate a threat to press freedom "unknown in modern history."
"I am honored to serve CPJ as board chair and support the incredible staffers who work tirelessly to keep journalists out of danger,” Carroll said in a statement. “That mission has never been more important. Journalists in many places around the world are being killed, jailed, tortured and threatened at an alarming rate, simply for doing their jobs. And in the United States, powerful public officials seek to undermine journalists and the press freedoms that were enshrined in the Constitution more than 200 years ago.”
Carroll's term runs until 2020.
She has been vice chair for the past five years and a board member since 2008. Up until last year she was senior VP of the Associated Press and is a past member of the board of the Pulitzer Prizes.
Chairs are elected for one three-year term but can serve another term, as was the case with Rowe.
CPJ executive director Joel Simon has said that the Trump Administration's treatment of the press is bad enough, but that it has "far worse" implications as precedent for other countries.
