 Hi, I'm Rebecca McKinnon, coming to you from the studios at the New America Foundation here in Washington DC. Now, we journalists, we have come to depend on the internet for pretty much everything that we do. As do researchers, as does everyone around the world increasingly, we depend on the internet for our personal lives, for our jobs, for our political lives as well. And in my recent book, Consent of the Network, The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom, what I point out is that we tend to take the nature of the internet for granted. And my point is that not only do we need to be concerned about how we use the internet, but we need to be concerned about what the internet currently is and what it might become. We cannot count on the internet remaining a platform for free expression. It will only remain a platform for free expression. It will only remain a platform on which we can conduct critical independent journalism, critical independent research if we fight to make it so. What you can and cannot do on the internet today is the result of decisions made by programmers, made by engineers, made by the companies that run the internet services and platforms and devices that we depend on. It is shaped by the policy decisions made by governments, made by legislatures, and by the way people all around the world use the internet every day. And so if we want the internet to remain compatible with free expression, if we want the internet to remain compatible with dissent and a platform on which dissent or muckraking journalism, hard hitting investigative journalism can be possible, we need to work at it. So as journalists and as media researchers the challenge is not only do we need to be thinking about the fact that business models of news are changing and how to ensure that independent quality journalism can survive as a business, but we also have to be worried about this delivery platform on which the journalism is conducted both in terms of what we publish but also in terms of gathering information and communicating with people. Are we going to be able to communicate with sources confidentially or will it become increasingly impossible to be anonymous online or to be secure online? Are we going to be able to access information freely around the world? Is it going to be possible to publish content that challenges the power of the people who control networks either as governments or as companies? These are all open questions. And so as journalists not only do we need to be covering the power struggles in the physical world which we always have done, but we need to be covering the power struggles over our digital world and our digital lives. And this is a story I think that journalists are only learning to tell, learning to cover. And so the challenge I think for journalists is to figure out how to cover this story better so that the public understands the different forces that are shaping the internet that we depend on for communications. They understand what laws are being passed and how that affects what you can put online, transmit through the internet and what the consequences are, what choices companies are making that shape whether you have any privacy online, how your identity is manifested online, and what you can publish or not publish who defines acceptable speech in all its different ways. And oftentimes it's very powerful companies making private decisions about what is acceptable speech, about how your identity should be manifested without a great deal of public accountability or input. And this is all affecting journalism. This is all affecting people's civic lives around the world. And these are stories that we need to be covering and it's our civic duty as journalists to cover. And so I have a number of questions that I'd like to suggest that both journalists and media researchers might want to think more about going forward. And one of those questions is what kind of support and training do journalists need going forward in order to be able to cover the internet as a politically contested space in a more effective way so that the public understands what's going on and so that policymakers and actually media leaders themselves understand what is going on. And what are some of the research questions we need to be asking that media researchers could be gathering data about that would help us better understand the way power is being exercised across digital platforms and services upon who it's being exercised and what are the consequences and who is responsible. There are a lot of research questions we could be asking about that which ultimately all have consequences for whether journalists and media organizations can independently do their jobs. And finally what are the policy advocacy strategies involved and how does that interplay with the work of journalists and the work of media researchers. And my final point is I think that journalists and media organizations have long agreed that press freedom is something is an issue on which news organizations cannot be neutral because without press freedom we cannot do our jobs. And similarly without a free and open internet press freedom is not going to be on solid footing it's going to be on very shaky footing that could disintegrate and so therefore just as media organizations just as journalists and media researchers have been taking a stand on press freedom and freedom of speech for a very long time it's also similarly important to take a stand for a free and open and interconnected internet if we want press freedom and freedom of speech to be possible in the internet age. Thank you very much.