Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Media SPJ Society of Professional Journalists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media SPJ Society of Professional Journalists. Show all posts

Friday, January 09, 2015

Statement by Society of Professional Journalists President Neuts on terrorist attack at French magazine

Statement by Society of Professional Journalists President Neuts on terrorist attack at French magazine

Home > SPJ News > Statement by SPJ President Neuts on terrorist attack at French magazine

According to an article in the New York Times, “Terrorists Strike Charlie Hebdo Newspaper in Paris, Leaving 12 Dead,” By DAN BILEFSKY and MAÏA de la BAUMEJAN. 7, 2015: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-paris-shooting.html?rref=world/europe

“PARIS — The police organized an enormous manhunt across the Paris region on Wednesday for three suspects they said were involved in a brazen and methodical midday slaughter at a satirical newspaper that had lampooned Islam.

“The terrorist attack by masked gunmen on the newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, left 12 people dead — including the top editor, prominent cartoonists and police officers — and was among the deadliest in postwar France. The killers escaped, traumatizing the city and sending shock waves through Europe and beyond.
Officials said late Wednesday that two of the suspects were brothers. They were identified as Said and Chérif Kouachi, 34 and 32. The third suspect is Hamyd Mourad, 18. News reports said the brothers, known to intelligence services, had been born in Paris, raising the prospect that homegrown Muslim extremists were responsible… http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-paris-shooting.html?rref=world/europe

Related: ‘Dangerous Moment’ for Europe, as Fear and Resentment Grow
By STEVEN ERLANGER and KATRIN BENNHOLDJAN. 7, 2015 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/europe/paris-attack-reflects-a-dangerous-moment-for-europe.html?emc=edit_th_20150108&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45685287

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Statement by SPJ President Neuts on terrorist attack at French magazine

1/7/2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan. 7. 2015 http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=1300

INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists is angered by today’s attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. This is a barbaric, appalling attempt to stifle press freedom.

Extremists feel emboldened to attack and kill journalists anywhere in the world for lampooning religion or reporting on political and governmental activities. Such outrageous attempts to silence journalists will not be tolerated or successful.

Journalists around the world work every day to report truth, enlighten the public and encourage people to think about all sides of issues important to society. This type of attack on such a basic human right – freedom of speech – is heinous and unacceptable. We urge other journalists and media organizations to stand in solidarity against this outrageous attack on press freedoms.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, one of numerous organizations also condemning the attack, reports this is the worst attack on the media since the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines. In 2014 alone, CPJ reports 61 journalists were killed worldwide, including 27 who were murdered. 
Our thoughts are with the families and colleagues of the victims of today’s horrific events.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit spj.org.


http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=1300
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Thursday, July 10, 2014

Society of Professional Journalists: Letter urges President Obama to be more transparent

Society of Professional Journalists: Letter urges President Obama to be more transparent

At least our professional journalist organization gets it and is standing-up for those of us in the trenches. This issue has quite a trickle-down effect, if you will… When the national government can get away with stone-walling the press – it emboldens state and local government to engage in a “politically driven suppression of news and information about” its actions and decisions.

Without accountability you get mediocrity.

Home > SPJ News > Letter urges President Obama to be more transparent

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Letter urges President Obama to be more transparent
http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1253

7/8/2014

President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, D.C
July 8, 2014

Mr. President,

You recently expressed concern that frustration in the country is breeding cynicism about democratic government. You need look no further than your own administration for a major source of that frustration – politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies. We call on you to take a stand to stop the spin and let the sunshine in.

Over the past two decades, public agencies have increasingly prohibited staff from communicating with journalists unless they go through public affairs offices or through political appointees. This trend has been especially pronounced in the federal government. We consider these restrictions a form of censorship -- an attempt to control what the public is allowed to see and hear.

The stifling of free expression is happening despite your pledge on your first day in office to bring “a new era of openness” to federal government – and the subsequent executive orders and directives which were supposed to bring such openness about.

Recent research has indicated the problem is getting worse throughout the nation, particularly at the federal level. Journalists are reporting that most federal agencies prohibit their employees from communicating with the press unless the bosses have public relations staffers sitting in on the conversations. Contact is often blocked completely. When public affairs officers speak, even about routine public matters, they often do so confidentially in spite of having the title “spokesperson.” Reporters seeking interviews are expected to seek permission, often providing questions in advance. Delays can stretch for days, longer than most deadlines allow. Public affairs officers might send their own written responses of slick non-answers. Agencies hold on-background press conferences with unnamed officials, on a not-for-attribution basis.

In many cases, this is clearly being done to control what information journalists – and the audience they serve – have access to. A survey found 40 percent of public affairs officers admitted they blocked certain reporters because they did not like what they wrote.

Some argue that controlling media access is needed to ensure information going out is correct. But when journalists cannot interview agency staff, or can only do so under surveillance, it undermines public understanding of, and trust in, government. This is not a “press vs. government” issue. This is about fostering a strong democracy where people have the information they need to self-govern and trust in its governmental institutions.

It has not always been this way. In prior years, reporters walked the halls of agencies and called staff people at will. Only in the past two administrations have media access controls been tightened at most agencies. Under this administration, even non-defense agencies have asserted in writing their power to prohibit contact with journalists without surveillance. Meanwhile, agency personnel are free speak to others -- lobbyists, special-interest representatives, people with money -- without these controls and without public oversight.

http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1253

Here are some recent examples:

The New York Times ran a story last December on the soon-to-be implemented ICD-10 medical coding system, a massive change for the health care system that will affect the whole public. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), one of the federal agencies in charge of ICD-10, wouldn’t allow staff to talk to the reporter.

A reporter with Investigative Post, an online news organization in New York, asked three times without success over the span of six weeks to have someone at EPA answer questions about the agency's actions regarding the city of Buffalo’s alleged mishandling of “universal waste” and hazardous waste.

A journalist with Reuters spent more than a month trying to get EPA’s public affairs office to approve him talking with an agency scientist about the effects of climate change. The public affairs officer did not respond to him after his initial request, nor did her supervisor, until the frustrated journalist went over their heads and contacted EPA’s chief of staff.

The undersigned organizations ask that you seek an end to this restraint on communication in federal agencies. We ask that you issue a clear directive telling federal employees they’re not only free to answer questions from reporters and the public, but actually encouraged to do so. We believe that is one of the most important things you can do for the nation now, before the policies become even more entrenched.

We also ask you provide an avenue through which any incidents of this suppression of communication may be reported and corrected. Create an ombudsman to monitor and enforce your stated goal of restoring transparency to government and giving the public the unvarnished truth about its workings. That will go a long way toward dispelling Americans’ frustration and cynicism before it further poisons our democracy.

Further examples on the issue are provided as well as other resources.

http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1253

Sincerely,

David Cuillier
President
Society of Professional Journalists
spjdave@yahoo.com

Beth Parke
Executive Director
Society of Environmental Journalists
bparke@sej.org

Kathryn Foxhall
Member
Society of Professional Journalists
kfoxhall@verizon.net

Holly Spangler
President
American Agricultural Editors’ Association

Gil Gullickson
Board Chair
American Agricultural Editors’ Association Professional Improvement Foundation

Alexandra Cantor Owens
Executive Director
American Society of Journalists and Authors

Janet Svazas
Executive Director
American Society of Business Publication Editors

David Boardman
President
American Society of News Editors

Hoda Osman
President
Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association

Kathy Chow
Executive Director
Asian American Journalists Association

Diana Mitsu Klos
Executive Director
Associated Collegiate Press

Paula Poindexter
President
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

Miriam Pepper
President
Association of Opinion Journalists

Lisa Graves
Executive Director
Center for Media and Democracy

Rachele Kanigel
President
College Media Association

Gay Porter DeNileon
President
Colorado Press Women

Sue Udry
Executive Director
Defending Dissent Foundation

Mark Newton
President
Journalism Education Association

Mark Horvit
Executive Director
Investigative Reporters and Editors

J.H. Snider
President
iSolon.org

Phyllis J. Griekspoor
President
North American Agricultural Journalists

Carol Pierce
Executive Director
National Federation of Press Women

Robert M. Williams Jr.
President
National Newspaper Association

Bob Meyers
President
National Press Foundation

Charles Deale
Executive Director
National Press Photographers Association

Diana Mitsu Klos
Executive Director
National Scholastic Press Association

Mary Hudetz
President
Native American Journalists Association

Jane McDonnell
Executive Director
Online News Association

Patrice McDermott
Executive Director
OpenTheGovernment.org

Tim Franklin
President
The Poynter Institute

Danielle Brian
Executive Director
Project on Government Oversight

Jeff Ruch
Executive Director
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

George Bodarky
President
Public Radio News Directors Incorporated

Mike Cavender
Executive Director
Radio Television Digital News Association

Herb Jackson
President
Regional Reporters Association

Christophe Deloire
Secretary General
Reporters without Borders

Frank LoMonte
Executive Director
Student Press Law Center

Roy S. Gutterman
Director
Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University

David Steinberg
President
UNITY Journalists for Diversity


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