DUBAI: The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday appointed a vice chair and four new members to its board of directors.
The vice chair is Lydia Polgreen, an opinion columnist for The New York Times whose previous jobs include managing director of podcast studio Gimlet and editor-in-chief of HuffPost.
The new board members are Roula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times; Alan Murray, CEO of Fortune Media; Maria Ressa, co-founder of news website Rappler; and Jacqueline Simmons, editorial lead for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Bloomberg.
“They represent a tremendous range of knowledge and experience and share a fundamental commitment to press freedom and safety around the world,” said Jacob Weisberg, the chair of the committee.
Prior to her appointment as editor of the Financial Times, Khalaf served as its deputy editor from 2016 to 2020, during which time she oversaw various initiatives, editorial projects and a global network of more than 100 foreign correspondents.
Murray spent nearly 20 years at The Wall Street Journal and was president of the Pew Research Center before joining Fortune in 2015.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Ressa is known for co-founding Rappler, described as the Philippines’ leading digital-only news site. She has been arrested several times and faced political harassment during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s time in power.
Simmons currently oversees more than 30 Bloomberg bureaus in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since her career began in 1996 she has held several news reporting and managerial roles at the company in Europe and the US.
Weisberg said: “All four new board members are not only accomplished journalists but passionate about the role that a free press plays in the world. We look forward to working with them to keep journalists free and safe.”
The CPJ is a non-profit, nongovernmental organization based in New York City that promotes freedom of the press and defends the rights of journalists.
