Journalism is increasingly mediated by the same digital tools to which we entrust the rest of our lives. In keeping with CPJ’s mission to enable and protect journalists wherever they find themselves under threat, we are pleased to announce the hire of Tom Lowenthal, our first staff technologist.
Tom is a technologist and activist with a special interest operational security and surveillance self-defense. A strong believer in individual privacy and personal freedom, Tom most recently worked as project coordinator at the Tor Project and before that as a privacy strategist at Mozilla. He earned his B.A. in Political Theory, with minors in Computer Science and in Technology Policy, from Princeton University. Tom is also a journalist, having written for Ars Technica.
Tom will work with me as part of CPJ’s Internet program, but he will also bring his technical expertise to bear across the organization. Among Tom’s responsibilities will be security training for journalists, research into emerging digital threats, and the communication of sophisticated technology policy information to the news media, government officials, the general public, and tech companies worldwide.
We are excited to welcome Tom to the team.