A Luncheon Talk on PRESS FREEDOM: CHALLENGES FOR THE MEDIA by Janet Steele was organised at the Bernama Centre for Excellence on 19 December 2014.
Janet Steele is an Associate Professor of Journalism at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.
She received her Ph.D. in History from the Johns Hopkins University, and is especially interested in how culture is communicated through the mass media.
She is a frequent visitor to Southeast Asia, where she lectures on topics ranging from the role of the press in a democratic society to specialized courses on narrative journalism.
Her most recent book Wars Within: The Story of Tempo, an Independent Magazine in Soeharto’s Indonesia (Equinox Publishing and ISEAS, 2005) focuses on Tempo magazine and its relationship to the politics and culture of New Order Indonesia.
She has published articles on media history and criticism in journals such as International Journal of Press/Politics, Asian Studies Review, Indonesia, Foreign Policy, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Political Communication, Columbia Journalism Review, and The American Journalism Review, and lectured on the theory and practice of journalism as a State Department Speaker and Specialist in India, Malaysia, The Philippines, East Timor, and Bangladesh.
A former Fulbright professor in the American Studies program at the University of Indonesia (1997-8), she was awarded a second Fulbright teaching and research grant to Jakarta’s Dr. Soetomo Press Institute for 2005-2006.
Fluent in Indonesian, she writes a weekly newspaper column called “Email from America” for Surya daily in Surabaya, East Java.
