As authoritarianism spreads, threats to journalists are growing around the globe – and here at home. As media consumers, we only get a glimpse of these encounters through the powerful articles they write. War correspondent and decorated journalist Andy Alexander joins us in partnership with The World Affairs Council of Charleston to share the ongoing and ever-rising threat to those who give us first-hand accounts of global information, and the new threats that digital surveillance poses to silencing their sources.
This program is in partnership with The World Affairs Council.
About Andy Alexander
Former Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander is an award-winning journalist and news industry leader who has been a reporter, editor and Washington bureau chief during a career that spans five decades. He has reported from more than 50 countries and won or shared in prizes for distinguished Washington correspondence and investigative journalism. As a strong open government advocate, he has written and spoken extensively about the public’s right to know. He helped launch the national Sunshine Week initiative, which each year focuses public attention on freedom of information and the dangers of excessive government secrecy. Mr. Alexander grew up in a small town in western Ohio and graduated with a journalism degree from Ohio University. He started reporting while still in college, working summers in Australia for the Melbourne Herald. Also before graduating, he spent a summer as a correspondent covering the war in Vietnam and covered the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Before joining The Washington Post in early 2009, he had spent his entire career with the Cox Newspapers chain. He began at a Cox paper in Dayton, Ohio and in 1976 was transferred to the Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau, where he covered Congress and politics. After reporting from the nation’s capital and extended overseas assignments, he moved into editing roles beginning in the late 1980s, first as foreign editor and then as deputy chief in the Cox bureau. In 1997, he was named bureau chief, overseeing a Washington staff and foreign bureaus in London, Jerusalem, Beijing, Moscow, Mexico City, Baghdad and the Caribbean, as well as domestic bureaus in New York and on the West Coast. During his time as chief, the Cox Washington bureau shared in the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Mr. Alexander currently is a Visiting Professional with the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University, where he has taught journalism ethics and helped foster media innovation and entrepreneurship. He also co-chairs the Scripps College of Communication Washington program. He is married to Beverly Jones, an attorney, consultant and author. They live in Washington, D.C. and Rappahannock County, Virginia, where Mr. Alexander chairs Foothills Forum, an innovative and thriving nonprofit that produces award-winning, locally focused, in-depth journalism
About the World Affairs Council
The World Affairs Council of Charleston (WACC), formerly the Charleston Foreign Affairs Forum, was founded in the early 1980s as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. The Council works to deepen our community’s global perspective through speaker programs, discussion groups, and educational experiences. The membership represents a cross-section of individuals from the business community, academia, government service, and civic backgrounds. We welcome participants of all ages and from all backgrounds. The WACC is a 501(c)(3) organization and is a member of the World Affairs Councils of America, a network of 90+ independent, nonpartisan councils across 40 states.
