New York, July 18, 2011–Five distinguished leaders of new and traditional media worldwide have joined the board of directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists. The new members–John Carroll, Arianna Huffington, Jonathan Klein, Mhamed Krichen, and Jacob Weisberg–join a roster of remarkable journalists and news executives playing a vital role in CPJ’s fight for press freedom.
“I am delighted to welcome these distinguished individuals whose proven leadership and experience strengthen the collective wisdom of our board,” CPJ Chairman Sandra Mims Rowe said. “As CPJ tackles increasingly diverse and complex attacks on the press, their contributions will surely prove invaluable.”
John S. Carroll has been editor of the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, and the Lexington Herald-Leader. He is currently writing a narrative nonfiction book and working on not-for-profit ventures involving journalism and education. He is chairman of the News Literacy Project, which gives students critical tools for identifying valuable sources of information within a torrent of digital information. Carroll began his career in 1963 as a reporter for the Providence Journal-Bulletin. After serving in the Army (1964-66) he joined the Baltimore Sun as a local reporter and later became the Sun’s correspondent in Vietnam, the Middle East, and Washington. A graduate of Haverford College, he has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and a Knight Visiting Lecturer at the Shorenstein Center of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Carroll, the recipient of numerous awards, was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board and served as the board’s chairman. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 he was honored with CPJ’s Burton Benjamin Memorial Award. (Full bio)
Arianna Huffington is president and editor-in-chief of AOL Huffington Post Media Group, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of 13 books. In 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely read and cited online media brands. In 2006 and 2011, she was named to Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with a master’s degree in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union. Huffington has made guest appearances on numerous television shows, including “Charlie Rose,” “Oprah,” “Nightline,” “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “Hardball,” “Good Morning America,” the “Today” show, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and “The O’Reilly Factor.” She serves on the board of the Spanish newspaper El País among others. (Full bio)
Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive officer of Getty Images, launched the company in 1995 and has served as chief executive since its inception. Under his direction, Getty Images has become a leading creator and distributor of imagery, footage, music, and digital media worldwide. In addition to acquiring and integrating more than 100 image libraries and companies worldwide, Klein led Getty Images’ drive into editorial imagery, making it a global leader. In 2008, after Getty Images traded publicly for 12 years, Klein took the company private. He is the recipient of several honors, including the International Center of Photography’s inaugural Trustees Award for Getty Images’ commitment to the field of photography. In 2006, Klein received top honors on American Photo‘s list of the “100 Most Important People in Photography.” Fast Company also named him one of the “Fast 50” individuals changing the way people work and live. He serves on a number of not-for-profit boards. A native of South Africa, Klein is based in New York City. (Full bio)
Mhamed Krichen is a Doha-based anchor and program host for Al-Jazeera. Having joined the news channel at its inception in 1996, he was a member of Al-Jazeera’s editorial board from 2004 to 2010, and has run training courses for Al-Jazeera Training and Media Development Centre since its establishment in 2004. For the last decade, he has been a weekly political columnist with the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi. After graduating from the Journalism and News Institute in his native Tunisia in 1981, Krichen worked as a stringer with Reuters, as editor of Arab affairs for several independent Tunisian weeklies, and as a reporter for Saudi and Lebanese newspapers. Krichen moved to radio, becoming a reporter with Radio Netherlands, Monte Carlo Middle East Radio, and Radio Tunis. In 1992, he shifted to television as correspondent for the London-based MBC, then as a newscaster for BBC Arabic. Krichen’s defense of press freedom in his native Tunisia made him the target of vilification by newspapers affiliated with the former Ben Ali regime. He is the author of two books, The PLO: History and Factions (1986), and Al-Jazeera and Its Sisters (2006). (Full bio)
Jacob Weisberg is chairman of The Slate Group, a unit of The Washington Post Company devoted to developing a family of Internet-based publications through start-ups and acquisitions. His regular opinion column is published by Slate, where he previously served as editor. A native of Chicago, Weisberg attended Yale University and New College, Oxford. He has worked in various capacities for The New Republic, New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Newsweek and the Financial Times. Weisberg is a member of the board of directors of the Philadelphia Media Network and is a past board member of the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Hudson Highlands Land Trust. He is the author of several books, including The Bush Tragedy (2008), In an Uncertain World (2003) co-written with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, and In Defense of Government (1996). (Full bio)
The newly elected board members will serve five-year terms. Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief and CEO of ProPublica, whose term as CPJ chairman ended in June, will join the organization’s advisory board. Anchors Dan Rather and David Marash, whose CPJ board membership dates to 1981 and 1982 respectively, have also moved to the advisory board.