Australian publisher, journalist, media and Internet entrepreneur, media critic, writer, computer programmer and political activist, he is the editor‐in‐chief and founder of WikiLeaks, a media website which publishes information from whistleblowers. The site acts as a conduit for worldwide news leaks, with a stated purpose of creating open governance. Assange has found asylum inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London England for the last 4 years.

Dr. Bamford is a leading bestselling author on intelligence and national security issues. His books include The Puzzle Palace, Body of Secrets, and A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies. Bamford has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and is a contributing writer for Rolling Stone. He also spent a decade as the Washington investigative producer for the ABC News program, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, and taught at the University of California, Berkeley, as a distinguished visiting professor.

Roberta began her career as an investigative reporter in Chicago and Washington D.C. She has served as the Executive Director of the Centre for Public Integrity the senior Washington correspondent for NOW with Bill Moyers, senior investigative producer for the ABC newsmagazine 20/20, chief investigative correspondent for the CBS newsmagazine 48 Hours, and contributed special reports to the CBS Evening News. Baskin has won more than 75 journalism prizes.

Kristina has been an independent producer and writer for more than twenty years. She produces and co‐host’s Expert Witness radio show on WBAI in New York City. She produced for CNN’s News Stand Magazine, she won an Emmy and a Murrow award, and has been nominated for many others, including for The Last Revolutionary, a biography about Fidel Castro. Her documentary film TWA Flight 800 premiered on Epix. Her book, Into The Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press (2002), garnered the National Press Club’s Arthur Rowse Award, & her book Feet To The Fire won the Independent Publishers Award For Current Events.

Chuck was an award‐winning journalist, essayist, author of Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields, and was based in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was a former writer for the Tucson Citizen and often wrote about the American Southwest, and drug wars. He was a contributing editor of GQ and Mother Jones magazine, and wrote for other periodicals including Harper’s Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Esquire, and Aperture. He was the winner of the 1996 Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, and a 2010 award from United States Artists. Sadly, Chuck passed away in 2014.

Bob was considered perhaps the best on‐the‐ground field officer in the Middle East. During his twenty‐one years with the CIA, Baer performed field assignments in South Asia and the Middle East. During the mid‐1990s, Baer was sent to Iraq, then quit the Agency in 1997 and received the CIA’s Career Intelligence Medal on March 11, 1998. Baer’s books See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil were the basis for the 2005 Academy Award‐winning Warner Brothers motion picture Syriana. He is currently TIME.com’s intelligence columnist and has contributed to Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Investigative journalist and progressive author, Pratap is a British citizen and grew up in India. He serves as the executive director of CorpWatch, an Oakland‐based corporate accountability organization. He also works for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London. He writes regularly for The Guardian and serves on the board of Amnesty International USA and of the Corporate Europe Observatory. He has been published in the Financial Times, The New Republic, The Guardian, and The Independent. He often appears as a guest expert in a wide variety of media ranging from Fox TV to Democracy Now! His writing has won a number of awards.

Journalist, media critic, professor, producer, and the founder of Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), Jeff was formerly a lawyer for the ACLU and authored and coauthored five books that focus on media bias. He was senior producer of Phil Donahue’s show Donahue. He was a regular commentator for Fox News Channel’s Fox News Watch, for MSNBC and CNN, and appears in a number of documentary films. Roots Action is an online initiative galvanizing people committed to economic fairness, equal rights, civil liberties, environmental protection, and defunding endless wars. He is the executive producer of the feature documentary film All Governments Lie (2016).

Luke is a journalist, and contributing editor at Esquire, where he writes on subjects ranging from lost atomic bombs to teenage hit men. His forthcoming book for Random House, The Brain That Changed Everything, is about Henry Molaison, who in 1958 underwent an experimental operation at the hands of Dittrich’s grandfather. The operation obliterated Molaison’s ability to create new memories, and Molaison went on to become the most important human test subject in the history of science, revolutionizing our understanding of how memory works.

Turkish‐American former FBI translator and founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), Sibel gained public attention following her firing from her position as a language specialist at the FBI’s Washington Field Office in March 2002. She’s accused the FBI of alleged serious acts of security breaches and cover‐ups. Her later claims have gained her recognition and awards.

Former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top‐secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. Dan completed his PhD in Economics from Harvard in 1962. Ellsberg is the recipient of many prizes and awards encouraging peace including the Ron Ridenhour Courage Prize, the Gandhi Peace Award, The Bertha Foundation’s Ben Bagdikian Award, and the Right Livelihood Award.

Journalist, most known for his criticism of election integrity issues in the USA, Brad has a BFA from New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. Friedman’s, THE BRAD BLOG, covers voting rights and election integrity issues in the USA, and a number of other subjects related to media reform and political corruption.

Philip was counter‐terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for eighteen years, working in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain and speaks those nations’ languages. Philip is a columnist and television commentator, and the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a group that advocates for more even handed policies by the U.S. government in the Middle East. He gained a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the University of Chicago and a MA and a Ph.D from the University of London in European History.

American actor, film director, and political activist, Danny is well known for his roles in The Color Purple, Predator 2, Witness, and in the Lethal Weapon film franchise, as well as roles in many other movies, television programs, and theatrical productions. Glover trained with Jean Shelton at the Shelton Actors Lab in San Francisco and cofounded the Robey Theatre Company in honor of the actor, radical activist, and concert singer Paul Robeson. He is an active supporter of various humanitarian and political causes. While attending San Francisco State University he collaborated in the longest student walkout in U.S. history to establish a Department of Black Studies.

American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet. Democracy Now! began in 1996, it airs hundreds of stations worldwide with over 20 million followers in 2011 alone. Democracy Now! has been called the most significant progressive news institution.

American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur, Dick is an influential American comic who has used his performance skills to convey his political message on civil rights, as well as many other social causes in the US and around the world. Gregory is number 82 on Comedy Central’s list of the 100 Greatest Stand‐ups of all time and has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Brian earned his M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1968. He first joined the CBS Evening News in 1972, and served in the London bureau as a field producer from 1976 to 1979. Healy has held positions as senior producer and producer for such broadcasts as the CBS Early Show, CBS Evening News, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, and CBS News Sunday Morning. Healy worked with the legendary Ed Bradley, serving as his producer on the floor of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He is the winner of several national Emmy Awards.

Journalist, author, and war correspondent specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies, Hedges is also known as the best‐selling author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. Chris is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News, and The New York Times where he was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years (1990–2005).

Janine is Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s program director and a frequent contributor to FAIR’s magazine, Extra! She co‐edited The FAIR Reader: An Extra! Review of Press and Politics in the ’90s’ (Westview Press). She co‐hosts and produces FAIR’s syndicated radio show Counter Spin, a weekly program of media criticism airing on more than 150 stations around the country.

Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, Deepa is the author of the book Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization, and the UPS Strike, and, ‘Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire’.

Peter is director of the National Security Archive’s Chile Documentation and of the Cuba Documentation Projects. He played a large role in the campaign to declassify government documents relating to the history of the U.S. Government’s support for the Pinochet dictatorship. He is the author of several books, and he won a 1990 James Aronson Award honorable mention for writing in The New Yorker.

Award-winning journalist who was among the first to investigate and raise questions about the Bush administration’s justifications for war in Iraq, Landay is senior national security and intelligence correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers. He has written about foreign affairs and U.S. defence, intelligence and foreign policies for over 25 years. He was a co-recipient of the 2003 Raymond Clapper Memorial Award for disclosing the exaggerated intelligence on the invasion of Iraq. In 2005, he won a National Headliners Award, an Award of Distinction from the Medill School of Journalism, and Georgetown University’s 2007 Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting Special Citation. He was a co-recipient of the National Press Club’s 2011 Edward M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence for an investigative series on corrupt contracting in Afghanistan.

Journalist and author of books about US politics, John was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal (1977), the Washington Star (1978), The Bergen Record (1978–1979), Chicago Sun Times (1979–1982), Le Devoir, and was assistant foreign editor at United Press International (1982). In 1993 he received the Mencken Award for best editorial/op‐ed column for his New York Times exposé of “Nayirah”, the Kuwaiti diplomat’s daughter who helped fake the Iraqi baby‐incubator atrocity. He took over the foundation that owned Harper’s, and became president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine in 1983.

American professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, Robert is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication. McChesney is the cofounder of Free Press the national media reform organization. McChesney also hosts the Media Matters, a weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on WILLAM radio; it is the top‐rated program in its time slot in the Champaign‐Urbana area. He is the author of many works and is among the most widely read and honored communication scholars in the world today.

Douglas is a Washington‐based legal correspondent for BusinessWeek. He joined BusinessWeek from Legal Times, where he was a Senior Editor overseeing much of their coverage on the intersection of the law, business and lobbying.

Thuyen is a successful business entrepreneur who founded Vietnam Labor Watch, a group dedicated on regulating fair business practices in Vietnam.

Political correspondent for The Nation magazine. Nichols is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles have appeared in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune amongst other publications. Along with fellow author Robert McChesney, Nichols co-founded the media reform group Free Press. American journalist and a pioneering political blogger, Nichols has authored and coauthored many books and is a frequent guest on national TV and radio.

A former House chief of staff, Kelly is a tough reporter because of her uncompromising and relentless digging for the facts. A savvy congressional watcher with long time Washington political experience, she tracked and plotted censured radar charts involving TWA Flight 800 that the National Transportation Safety Board said didn’t exist. Her investigative reports on child vaccines have generated congressional hearings, as has her work on medicating children with mind‐altering drugs. Kelly is a member of the congressional press galleries and a frequent guest on national talk radio and often can be seen on the national television talk shows.

American investigative journalist, Robert was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984 for his work with the Associated Press on the Iran-Contra story and uncovered Oliver North’s involvement in it as a Washingtonbased correspondent for Newsweek. In 1995, he established Consortium News as an online e-zine dedicated to investigative journalism. Parry has written several books, including Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & Project Truth (1999), and, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq (2004). From 2000 to 2004, he also worked for the financial wire service Bloomberg.

Susan is director of the journalism program at Chapman University, she is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years experience as a reporter, writer and columnist. A senior writer for American Journalism Review, Professor Paterno won the National Press Club’s 2006 Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, Parenting, and many other publications. She has collaborated on a half dozen books, including The News Writer’s Handbook and Talk Straight, Listen Carefully: The Art of Interviewing with M.L. Stein, the retired chair of New York University’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.

R.B. practices Family Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution from Terrell, Texas. He is a long time law partner and family friend of Bill Conradt, who in 2006, became involved with the American television newsmagazine program Dateline NBC; To Catch A Predator.

Dan began his journalism career in 1950 as an Associated Press reporter in

Huntsville, Texas. Later, he was a reporter for United Press (1950–1958), several Texas radio stations, and the Houston Chronicle (1954–1955). Rather was the first network television journalist to report that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. After serving as a foreign correspondent for CBS in London in 1965 and Vietnam in 1966, he served his second tenure as White House correspondent during the Richard Nixon presidency. As chief correspondent for the documentary series CBS Reports, he later became a correspondent of 60 Minutes. Then he succeeded Walter Cronkite as anchor and Managing Editor of CBS Evening News for 24 years. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather is publishing a book in 2017.

Silvia is an authoritative voice on issues of leadership and diversity in public media. She is the product of youth‐media training, having started her career in 1998 at Radio Arte (WRTE‐FM), a youth‐driven Latino public radio station. There she became host/music & public affairs producer, Community Relations Director, Assistant GM of Marketing & Development, and ultimately General Manager (2006‐2009). Silvia received the Founder’s Award in 2007 by the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW). She is a founding member and Board President of the Latino Public Radio Consortium.

American author, journalist, and a writer, he’s also a producer, creator, and co-creator of television series’. Simon worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co‐wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner City Neighborhood with Ed Burns. He is the creator of the HBO television series The Wire, for which he served as executive producer, head writer for all five seasons. He was selected as one of the 2010 MacArthur Fellows and named an Utne Reader visionary in 2011. Simon created the HBO series Treme, he wrote the HBO mini-series Show Me A Hero, and is producing more dramas with his company Blown Deadline Production.

American journalist, media critic, antiwar activist, candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Norman is a longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. In 1997 he founded the Institute for Public Accuracy, which works to provide alternative sources for journalists, and served as its executive director until 2010. Solomon’s weekly column, “Media Beat”, was in national syndication from 1992‐2009. He is a progressive author and activist. Roots Action which he co-founded is an online initiative galvanizing people committed to economic fairness, equal rights, civil liberties, environmental protection, and defunding endless wars.

Kurt is a businessman working in the Bay area in Northern California. He is the brother of Gary Webb, an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and won more than 30 journalism awards. In 1990 he won a Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for a series of stories on the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct during northern California’s 1989 earthquake. He also received the 1997 Media Hero Award from the Institute for Alternative Journalism and in 1996 was named Journalist of the Year by the Bay Area Society of Professional Journalists. Gary Webb was best known for his 1996 “Dark Alliance” series of articles written for the San Jose Mercury News and later published as a book. In 2013 the late Gary Webb was awarded the The Bertha Foundation’s Ben Bagdikian Award for excellence in journalism and outstanding achievement towards human liberties, accepted by his son, Ian.

Philip is an American journalist who co‐edits Mondoweiss, a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective. He is the author of Cock-a-Doodle-Doo (1996), American Taboo: A Murder In The Peace Corps (2004), and co‐edited the 2011 book The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict. Weiss has written for the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Harper’s Magazine, and the New York Observer.

Walter is a former police detective with the Murphy Police Department in Texas. In 2006, the police department was involved with the American television newsmagazine program Dateline NBC; To Catch A Predator, and Walter left the department in disgust.