Tuesday, March 7
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST
(Lunch served 12:00-12:15 p.m.)
National Endowment for Democracy
1025 F Street NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20004
Speakers:
Shanthi Kalathil, Director, International Forum for Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy
Rebecca MacKinnon, Director of the Ranking Digital Rights Project, New America
Moderator:
Brian Joseph, Senior Director of Asia and Global Programs, National Endowment for Democracy
Event Description:
Now over a decade old, the “Great Firewall of China” has been dubbed the world’s largest system of censorship. China, however, is no longer content to limit its reach to a domestic audience. Without much fanfare, the Chinese government has turned its focus outward, seeking to take its influence over the information environment global.
In a new CIMA report, Shanthi Kalathil delves into China’s unprecedented attempts to harness the global information ecosystem, primarily through three avenues: shaping international news media, guiding the evolution of the global Internet, and influencing global culture through Hollywood. What emerges is an altered understanding of the ways in which authoritarian regimes like China can wield information resources as power in the global arena.
Please join us as the author describes this phenomenon and its implications for democracy in the region and beyond. Rebecca MacKinnon, Director of the Ranking Digital Rights Project at New America and former CNN Beijing Bureau Chief, will provide comments. Brian Joseph, Senior Director of Asia and Global Programs at NED, will moderate.