Associate professor

Ph.D., University of Minnesota
M.A., University of Minnesota
B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Cathy Packer teaches media law to undergraduate and graduate students and is a co-editor of the North Carolina Media Law Handbook, to which she contributes the chapter on access to state and local government records. She also contributed a chapter on confidential sources and information to the annually updated textbook, Communication and the Law. 

She is the author of the book Freedom of Expression in the American Military: A Communication Modeling Analysis and has published articles in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and Mass Comm Review. This year she will have an article published in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal.

Packer’s two major research interests are reporter’s privilege law and the law governing the business of the media, which includes the law on media taxation and employee contracts.

Packer has worked on free press projects in Albania, Jordan and Russia. She also works closely with international graduate students in the School.

Office phone: (919) 962-4077
Office location: Carroll 358
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it