Books by Joel Simon

How censorship turned a terrible disease into an assault on rightsAs COVID-19 spread around the world, so did government censorship. The Infodemic lays bare not just old-fashioned censorship, but also the mechanisms of a modern brand of “censorship through noise,â€? which moves beyond traditional means of state control‿such as the jailing of critics and restricting the flow of information‿to open the floodgates of misinformation, overwhelming the public with lies and half-truths. Joel Simon and Robert Mahoney, who have traveled the world for many years defending press freedom and journalists‿ rights as the directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists, chart the onslaught of COVID censorship beginning in China, through Iran, Russia, India, Egypt, Brazil, and inside the Trump White House. Increased surveillance in the name of public health, the collapse of public trust in institutions, and the demise of local news reporting all contributed to help governments hijack the flow of information and usurp power. Full of vivid characters and behind the scenes accounts, The Infodemic shows how under the cover of a global pandemic, governments have undermined freedom and taken control‿this new political order may be the legacy of the disease.

This is the story of the ancient Israelite prophet Elijah, and his conflict with Jezebel and the cults of Baal and Ashtarte. The political struggle between the national kings and the traditional religious forces are the subtext of this story from the Biblical Book of Kings. In the original narrative, Jezebel is protrayed as entirely evil and Elijah entirely good. But time has a way of reducing real people to one-dimensional caricatures, when the realities are much more complex. The conflict takes place over several generations, and eventually determines the future of the nation.

Journalists are being imprisoned and killed in record numbers. Online surveillance is annihilating privacy, and the Internet can be brought under government control at any time. Joel Simon, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, warns that we can no longer assume that our global information ecosystem is stable, protected, and robust. Journalists are increasingly vulnerable to attack by authoritarian governments, militants, criminals, and terrorists, who all seek to use technology, political pressure, and violence to set the global information agenda.Reporting from Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and Mexico, among other hotspots, Simon finds journalists under threat from all sides. The result is a growing crisis in information-a shortage of the news we need to make sense of our globalized world and fight human rights abuses, manage conflict, and promote accountability. Drawing on his experience defending journalists on the front lines, he calls on "e;global citizens,"e; U.S. policy makers, international law advocates, and human rights groups to create a global freedom-of-expression agenda tied to trade, climate, and other major negotiations. He proposes ten key priorities, including combating the murder of journalists, ending censorship, and developing a global free-expression charter to challenge the criminal and corrupt forces that seek to manipulate the world's news.

In solution-focused therapy, all that is required is a client's vision of how his or her life might be different and more satisfying. This title shows that solution-focused practice can be a useful approach in end-of-life and bereavement work. It is suitable for social workers, hospice workers, and psychologists.