John Hughes is a Pulitzer prize-winning jounalist, and former Editor of The Christian Science Monitor.

He has also served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, and as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations.

He is currently Professor of Journalism and Director of the International Media Studies Program at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

He writes a nationally-syndicated column for the Christian Science Monitor

In 1991 he chaired President Bush's bipartisan Task Force on the future of US government international broadcasting. In 1992 he was appointed Chairman of a joint Presidential-Congressional Commission on Broadcasting to the People's Republic of China.

In 1993 the Corporation for Public Broadcasting appointed Hughes to its Advisory Commission on Public Broadcasting to the World.

Born in Wales, educated in England, Hughes joined the Monitor in 1954, serving as Africa correspondent and Far East correspondent before assuming the editorship from 1970-79.

He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Indonesia, and the Overseas Press Club award for best reporting from abroad for an investigation into the narcotics traffic. He is a former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

From 1981 to 1985 he served successively as Associate Director of the United States Information Agency, Director and Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. In 1995 he served a one-year term as Assistant Secretary-General and Director of Communications at the United Nations.

He has written two books, one on Indonesia and one on Africa.