Foreign Press Association USA: Recent Episodes
Foreign Press Association USA
Podcast from the Foreign Press Association USA.
The Foreign Press Association was founded in New York on 16th February, 1918 as the Association of Foreign Correspondents. After WW II the name was changed to the Foreign Press Association to better reflect our membership's titles and positions. It has no ties with any government and is free from all national and political bias. It is a strictly independent, not-for-profit organization. www.foreignpressassociation.org
Overlooked in Ridley Scott’s biopic is Napoleon’s role in trying to reintroduce slavery into Haiti, but then the world often forgets the chaos it has helped introduce there for over two centuries. Now with ports and airports closed following its descent into lawlessness, Haiti’s children suffer daily from the country’s growing food crisis. In this latest FPA briefing, Chris Greene and Remenson Tenor of Meds & Food for Kids show the desperate need for emergency food relief to children in the country. Tenor joins us from Haiti in Cap-Hatienne where he oversees the production of emergency food by Meds & Food for Kids for UNICEF, and describe conditions in the country and the possible responses from local and global actors. They call for urgent action to ensure secure access to food and other essential supplies - which are available to deploy in-country. Meds & Food for Kids produces lifesaving ready-to-use therapeutic food for distribution throughout Haiti and 17 other countries.Chris Greene is M&FK’s CEO who works with the organization’s global stakeholders, partners and the team in Cap Haitien, Haiti, and has many years of experience in the country. Remenson Tenor succeeded Greene as COO of the organization. Remenson leads a team of nearly 90 locals at the Cap-Haitien factory in who annually produce more than 400 metric tons of emergency, life-saving ready-to-use-therapeutic-foods to save the lives of starving children and mothers. This team provided emergency treatments to more than 100,000 malnourished Haitians last year. Haitian-born and educated the USA, Remenson has worked in food safety, He has worked in management with the organization for five years.
With a 100% accuracy rate in Russian election forecasts, Tinatin Japaridze discussed what comes next for Russia and its neighbors in our next FPA briefing. How will the ghost of Stalin continue to shape Putin’s worldview, dreams of empire, and his willingness to light a fire under the current geopolitical world order?Tinatin Japaridze is Eurasia Group’s geopolitical risk analyst specializing in security and politics in Eurasia, with a particular focus on the Russia-Ukraine war. She also leads the firm’s coverage of the South Caucasus region.
With Trump Republicans withholding military support to Ukraine, former National Security Advisor & UN Ambassador John Bolton made headlines with his straight talking- there will be “celebrations in the Kremlin if Trump is re-elected”.Bolton is one of the few leading Republicans who have dared to highlight the geopolitical consequences of a second Trump Presidency, along with the global and U.S. national security risks of GOP isolationism.Ambassador Bolton joined us again to share his uninhibited perspective on developments in Russia and Ukraine, the Middle East, Asia and the U.S. He answered questions from international reporters in a briefing moderated by FPA President Ian Williams.
FPA’s briefing with Chris Gunness, former BBC UN World Correspondent and later UNRWA Spokesperson, and Ben Armbruster, Quincy Institute, on UNRWA considered the questions that far too many media failed to ask.
Weeks after too many governments cut funding to UNRWA - in defiance of the ICJ’s admonitions - Israel has not offered the media, or the governments, any evidence for their allegations of UNRWA complicity in the events of October 7. None of the governments claim seeing any evidence, and Israel has not claimed to offer anything more than an empty ‘dodgy dossier’ relaying old and discredited allegations from UNWatch, an Israeli backed pseudo NGO.
Some “respected” newspapers had furloughed IDF service members working on their story which in the case of the New York Times was given equal front page prominence with the ICJ verdict. And when it came time for its big podcast launch, they have now walked it back for justified fear of reputational damage.
The shoot-first approach to coverage of this story and to firing UNWRA employees represent failures of elementary journalistic, employer, and government process to determine the veracity of the serious allegations made by Israel that resulted in cutting off cut funds for food health and education for millions in Gaza and elsewhere. It affects millions in the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon - where there is no sign of Hamas.
While UNWRA is conducting an investigation, a fundamental question remains - if a dozen people in an organization of 13,000 participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel – is it an appropriate response to try to shut down the whole organization and starve millions as a form of collective punishment?
Watch the full briefing which was moderated by FPA President, Ian Williams, and Al Jazeera NY Correspondent and FPA Board Member, Kristen Saloomey.
Children account for 13% of all AIDS-related deaths even though they comprise 4% of all people living with HIV globally. For over 35 years, the Elizabeth Glaser AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) has championed the needs of children and their families in the global efforts to eliminate AIDS. EGPAF has reached over 35 million pregnant women with services to prevent transmission of HIV to their babies.
Furthermore, EGPAF’s global political and advocacy teams work to safeguard programs such as PEPFAR, which is mission critical to end AIDS in children, youth and families. EGPAF offers HIV counseling, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services in 15,000 sites across 17 different countries in sub-Saharan Africa where the burden of pediatric AIDS is highest.
Join us for a conversation with EGPAF’s President and CEO, Charles “Chip” Lyons where we talk about EGPAF’s work, the state of the global pediatric AIDS crisis, and the need to remain vigilant in the fight to end pediatric AIDS.
With more than 20,000 Palestinians dead, areas of Gaza turned to rubble, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has yet to investigate either Israel or Hamas for the deaths on and after 7 October– despite his exemplary hair trigger speed against Vladimir Putin for war crimes committed in Ukraine.With South Africa's referral of Israel to the International Court of Justice for genocide, and the U.S.’s continued strong support for the Netanyahu government’s military response as geopolitical context, many are looking for the International Criminal Court to take action - if only as a warning to the parties, but so far Karim Khan, the British barrister serving as ICC prosecutor, shows no sign of action, reinforcing allegations of “rich country justice."Two close up observers of the process Hasmik Egian and Mouin Rabbani gave their take in the indispensable Pass Blue and will try to explain to the media International legal impotence in the face of alleged Israeli actions.
Antonio Guterres has invoked his little used powers to convene a Security Council meeting on Gaza and the US vetoed it. Ironically the day after, 9th December, was the International Day of Commemoration & Dignity of Victims of the Crime of Genocide & Prevention of this Crime. This past week also saw the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!Is there a Middle Eastern dimension outside this universe where Universal Jurisdiction on Human Rights doesn’t apply?Where are the warrants for the arrests of Hamas and Israeli leadership for crimes far more flagrant than those alleged against Vladimir Putin?Craig Mokhiber, who resigned as NY Director for UN Commission on Human Rights over UN passivity on Gaza, discussed how human rights are impeded at the UN, the parlous prospects for Human Rights enforcement, and what the media’s role in it is with FPA President Ian Williams.
George Orwell practiced what many journalists preach, truth-telling in the face of pressure.
But decades later it’s like Groundhog Day. Perennially, politicians stage a new "deja vu all over again" action replay of Animal Farm and 1984. As Masha Karp points out, the second translation of Orwell’s fable was into Ukrainian - and thousands of copies were confiscated by the American Occupation authorities in Germany! Karp, former features editor for the BBC Russian Service goes into the Russian origins of Orwell’s worldview and reveals the author’s family connection with the Soviets and Esperanto, the artificial language that preceded Newspeak!
https://neweasterneurope.eu/2023/09/11/orwells-warning-of-totalitarianism-for-today/
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/george-orwell-and-russia-masha-karp-review
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/george-orwell-and-russia-9781788317139/
Masha Karp is a leading scholar on the work of George Orwell. Born in Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia), she also translated George Orwell’s Animal Farm and its original preface ‘The Freedom of the Press’.In 1991 she moved to London to work first as a producer (1991-1997) and then as Russian Features editor (1997-2009) for the BBC World Service. Her biography of Orwell was the first to be published in Russia.
Eric Alterman's We Are Not One: A History of America's Fight Over Israel is a very timely, critical examination of how the "pro-Israel" side has dominated public discourse in the US to the point that for many decades only one side of the argument could be heard by all but the most specialized of audiences.
Today that has changed considerably, and Israel is at the center of ferocious debate in a multi-sided argument characterized largely by intense emotion, character assassination and an insistence on rewriting history, with a commitment to emotional “certainties” that have little patience for the complexity of the history that they evoke.
Thursday 11 am the FPA hosts Alterman on his book and dissects the current mismatch between the US/Israel relations while exploring how Israel loses support from American Jews as it gains support from GOP Christian fundamentalists.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/we-are-not-one-a-history-of-america-s-fight-over-israel-eric-alterman/18334624?ean=9780465096312&ref=&source=IndieBound&title=We+Are+Not+One%3A+A+History+of+America%E2%80%99s+Fight+Over+Israel
Alterman is contributing writer to the Nation and to The American Prospect. In the past, he has been a senior fellow of the Center for American Progress, the World Policy Institute and The Nation Institute, a columnist for Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, MSNBC.com, The Forward, Moment and the Sunday Express (London) as well as a contributor to The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Le Monde Diplomatique, among other publications.
The US’s flyover country is taking off, boosted by technology. Previously known for industry and agriculture, decline and decay, heartland cities are being revived as technology companies move in and investors widen their focus from the coasts to fund entrepreneurs in America’s Heartland.Author and technology reporter Rebecca A. Fannin will expand upon her new book Silicon Heartland to talk about the drivers behind the reinvention of mid-western cities as thriving tech hubs, and what this means for the U.S. economy. She will discuss the impact of regulatory changes, technology layoffs and China on the outlook for the region.Rebecca A. Fannin is a journalist, author, and media entrepreneur who grew up in the Ohio heartland town of Lancaster. After graduating from Ohio University and working at Dayton's morning newspaper, she left the Appalachian foothills for new horizons in New York City and Silicon Valley, became a contributor for CNBC, and wrote for Forbes and Harvard Business Review, among others.-This briefing is made possible by the Foreign Press Foundation. Donate at foreignpressassociation.org/ways-to-support.html Become a member of the Foreign Press Association at foreignpressassociation.org/join-the-association1.html Follow us on social media: twitter.com/fpanewsusa facebook.com/fpanewyork instagram.com/fpanewyork youtube.com/c/foreignpressassociationusalinkedin.com/in/fpausa/
Georgia’s ruling party announced the withdrawal of the “foreign agent” bill from the parliament but implied that it will retry with a modified version that obscures its alleged origins in Moscow. Sadly, reminiscent of Ukraine ten years ago, Georgia’s rulers are attempting to disguise their dependence on Moscow-leaning oligarchs in the face of popular outrage. Tinatin Japaridze weighs the vectors of Russian pressure and majority Georgian support for independence and Ukraine.Georgian, educated in Moscow and the US, Tinatin is Special Advisor on Eurasian security at Eurasia Group.Her debut non-fiction book, Stalin’s Millennials: Nostalgia, Trauma, and Nationalism, was published to critical acclaim in March 2022 and was the subject of a prescient FPA briefing on the Putinesque mind set of Moscow.A forthcoming book on The Implications of Emerging Technologies in the Euro-Atlantic Space: Views from the Younger Generation Leaders Network (Palgrave Macmillan, April 2023) includes Tinatin's chapter on "Cyber Sovereignty: Should cyber borders replicate territorial borders?"-This briefing is made possible by the Foreign Press Foundation. Donate at foreignpressassociation.org/ways-to-support.html Become a member of the Foreign Press Association at foreignpressassociation.org/join-the-association1.html Follow us on social media: twitter.com/fpanewsusa facebook.com/fpanewyork instagram.com/fpanewyork youtube.com/c/foreignpressassociationusalinkedin.com/in/fpausa/
The DeSantis ban on diversity programs in Florida’s State colleges and universities, African American studies advance placement courses and attacks on “Critical Race Theory,” accompanied by book bans tell us a lot about who the GOP sees as its voters.
Is this 21 st Century version of Nixon’s Southern Strategy tailored to break Democratic lock on minority vote? It has already been successful in Florida, which despite its large Hispanic and African American population, re-elected DeSantis by a record margin. Is a dog whistle in political culture wars that is pushing buttons to win an election or a full-blooded embrace of reactionary racism?–
Marcela Berland, CEO of Latin Insights, experts on opinion polling, women’s issues and DE&I expert, will draw on their research to talk about the drivers behind DeSantis’s actions and what they can tell us about national trends, where minority voters increasingly vote for a party that marginalizes them.
Berland’s clients have included Michael Bloomberg, Fortune 500 firms, nonprofits and International NGOs. She is a 2022 Forbes 1,000 awardee.
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The first translation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm was into Ukrainian, and the American occupying forces in Germany helped the Russians trash many copies for its political and linguistic heresy. The latest translation, Animal Fairm translatit intae Scots, is by Thomas Clark. London is not sending tanks across Hadrian’s Wall, but you can see the parallels. We live in an Orwellian era.
Russian rulers consider Ukrainian un-necessary, and many English speakers might wonder why Scots is needed. Clark is not dogmatic about it, but independence looms. Orwell was an internationalist, Clark points out, but while he wrote about totalitarianism, he also thought deeply about how language is both an enabler and a shield against totalitarianism.
In our next FPA briefing on Language, Orwell and Scots independence, Thomas Clark, a poet and writer, who has also translated Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Alice in Wonderland and A Series of Unfortunate Events, talks to FPA President Ian Williams, whose book Political and Cultural Perceptions of George Orwell: British and American Views deserved a better translator for the title.
Closed captioning will not be necessary. Tom and Ian both speak English – after their fashion.
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All reporters know that investigations can be long, expensive and eventually fruitless, which is why more and more papers no longer bother with them. But ProPublica goes beyond that and probes the skull beneath the skin of PR. So when reporter Brett Murphy heard about how police forces and prosecutors were using "911 call analysis” — linguistic quirks to determine that the person calling was in fact guilty of the crime — he looked farther. It was clearly all junk and no science. Still, the FBI was encouraging gullible police departments to pay its inventor $3,500 a session to inculcate cops and advise them whether a 911 caller was guilty. Some prosecutors know there is no reliable foundation but disguise it in court to use against unwitting defendants anyway.
Brett explains how ProPublica works and how he found that pseudoscience is running rampant through America’s justice system.
ProPublica is "an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.”
Brooklyn-based Brett Murphy has been with ProPublica since last May after seven years of reporting for a variety of media outlets.
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Were the efforts to unseat Governor Newsom in the California 2021 recall vote a grassroots uprising, or a well-plotted effort by a minority to unseat a democratically elected governor, falling into an increasing practice of using astroturf to simulate real grassroots and then setting it on fire?
Cassandra Hayes’ research explores how a small group drove outrage on social media with inflammatory posts, fanned by a cabal of activists, bots and algorithms in a coordinated effort to unseat the Democratic Governor.
Hayes, who teaches Broadcast Journalism at Stephen F. Austin State University, discusses the manipulation of social media around the recall vote to achieve political goals and offers current and historical context for journalists to evaluate similar astroturf fires.
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The FPA joins Palestine DeepDive to talk to Kenneth Roth ‘the Godfather of Human Rights’ about Harvard’s reported decision to block him from taking up a fellowship over Human Rights Watch's criticism of Israel’s human rights record.
The Harvard Kennedy School has bowed to pressure, after large donors and some prominent pro-Israeli organizations attacked HRW which Roth directed from 1993-2022, after the organization's April 2021 report documenting Israel’s systematic oppression of the Palestinians both across the oPt and within Israel itself and how it amounts to apartheid. At the same time, Associated Press fired their new recruit journalist Emily Wilder when lobby groups pointed out previous posts they considered as anti-Israel.
Join us as we learn why Roth feels his senior fellowship position at Harvard has been blocked, and the challenges human rights advocates and reporters face for reporting on Israel.
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/10/kenneth-roth-human-rights-watch-harvard-israel
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Ambassador John Bolton gave a New Year round-the-world round-up of hot spots to FPA members. Talking to FPA President Ian Williams, he’s still keeping his powder dry for a potential run in in the GOP primaries, but does not see Trump as a serious contender. Kicking off from his current article on Isolationism he discusses what he sees as the weakness of Washington against Russia, China and Iran, dismissing fears of provoking aggressors like Putin and Xi and arguing for robust support of Ukraine and Taiwan. He contrasted Germany’s temporizing under Chancellor Scholtz with PM Kishida’ s rearmament program for Japan.
Read John Bolton's recent article here: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nationalreview.com_magazine_2023_01_23_containing-2Disolationism_&d=DwIFaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=xCRiejoqZ-ypXFPuP9WxWQ&m=b9hfv9hzBtljxFx6UDObHnnyLFKeyP5bq3u3E5BmwGHWDQp1eMEHqU3G0wNUwFTt&s=n1SDL8NktbsBtov5gx0H9QZ7AF7iFdk_8hWuFSBmDcA&e=
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Taiwan local elections gave gains to the KMT which used to rule the island - and indeed China, while across the straits domestic tumult in the PRC could tempt Beijing to divert attention by threatening the island.
Alexander Huang was recently appointed KMT rep in Washington where former ruling party’s voice has been muted since the DPP took power in Taipei. He explains the KMT view on events to FPA correspondents.
Alexander Huang is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Strategic Studies at Tamkang University, the Chairman & CEO of the Council on Strategic & Wargaming Studies, and Special Advisor to the Chairman & Director of International Affairs at KMT (Nationalist Party).
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Many pundits across the world have published views on Donald Trump’s mental health, but none have been experts. An actual expert, forensic psychiatrist Dr Bandy Lee, found herself fired by Yale and under attack by the American Psychiatric Association and Alan Dershowitz, lawyer to the powerful, for her organizing the book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”
Currently president of the World Mental Health Coalition, the largest professional organization to address the problem of dangerous leadership and its contribution to a ‘psychological pandemic,’ she has also researched outbreaks of violence like January 6. She will answer questions from the FPA on the mental health of national leadership and the predicted cycle of political violence in the USA.
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The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese*, will provide a virtual briefing on key findings and conclusions of her report to the General Assembly on the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory.
This webinar is co-organized by the Foreign Press Association and the Centre for United Nations Studies, University of Buckingham.
The Special Rapporteur’s report on the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people is now publicly available in all the official languages on the UN Official Documentation System. Francesca Albanese was appointed the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 by the Human Rights Council at its 49th session in March 2022 and has taken up her function as of 1 May 2022. Ms. Albanese is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, as well as a Senior Advisor on Migration and Forced Displacement for a think-tank, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD). She has widely published on the legal situation in Israel and the State of Palestine and regularly teaches and lectures on international law and forced displacement at universities in Europe and the Arab region. Ms. Albanese has also worked as a human rights expert for the United Nations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees.
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The Foreign Press Association joins with the Beyond Earth Institute to launch their report urging Washington to set up a Beyond Earth Working Group (BEWG) to draft a framework for next generation of orbital enterprise, including human colonization of space.
Authors Courtney Stadd, Beyond Earth Institute Vice President and Robert Brumley, along with Steven Wolfe, Co-founder and President of the Institute will explain the report and its implications for journalists.
The report, “Emerging Space Industrial Ecosystem Leading to Eventual Beyond Earth Migration: How the U.S. Government Can Avoid Being Left Behind", is available now.
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“For All Mankind” reached its climax and even though Russian cosmonauts had flaunted flags of annexed Ukrainian districts, this week a new Space Station crew with US, Soviet, and Japanese members has just launched to join the Americans, Italian and Russian crew that went up on a Russian rocket two weeks ago.
In a world obsessed with other kinds of rockets falling on people rather than taking people into orbit, Laura talks about more forward looking uses of rocketry and previews the Beyond Earth Symposium.
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In this conversation, Malaak Jamal answers questions about the Human Rights Foundation's new report, "Framing Justice in Syria: The Road Toward Comprehensive Justice" — a collaboration with The Syria Campaign — which provides a comprehensive overview of domestic and international judicial avenues to prosecute the crimes against humanity that have been committed in Syria. She will also preview the Oslo Freedom in New York, taking place on October 3 from 2:00-6:00 pm EST, to which FPA members are invited.
Eleven years on from the start of the Syrian revolution crimes against humanity continue to take place in Syria. There has been a lack of a strong international response to the conflict in the country, allowing these crimes to take place and for the Syrian regime to act with impunity. Sadly, Syria has disappeared from the news cycle, which is why this conversation aims to bring back attention to the country by addressing the role of the legal principle of universal jurisdiction in seeking justice and accountability for Syria.
Malaak Jamal is the Director of Policy and Research at the Human Rights Foundation, where she researches and analyzes political regime developments in countries under authoritarian rule. She received her M.A. in Diplomacy and International Relations from Seton Hall University, specializing in human rights and international law, and her B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Malaak's opinions have been featured in TIME, The Washington Post, The News Lens, and CNN.
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. HRF unites people in the common cause of defending human rights and promoting liberal democracy. Its mission is to ensure that freedom is preserved and promoted worldwide.
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In the run up to Pearl Harbor British and American press magnates supported dictators, leaked wartime military secrets, used racist slurs and shameless outright lies to get their way while fawning over blood thirsty dictators.
So what’s changed? Kathryn S. Olmstead talks to the FPA about her new book “The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons who Enabled Hitler.”
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Between fires, floods, hurricanes and famines, it might look like the end of the world. But Professor Laura Mersini-Houghton has done the math - and can tell us when and perhaps how the Universe will end and how it began. As a student in the dying days of Enver Hoxha, she was no stranger to the concept of thought crime, but found that the Western scientific establishment could also be unforgiving for iconoclasts (while harboring sexual harassers).
Despite all, her engaging personal Odyssey covers from the chaos of Big Bang to the last whimper via Communist Tirana and the Large Hadron Collider and is a readable and comprehensible guide to the Cosmos.
Laura Mersini-Houghton is a cosmologist and theoretical physicist, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of Before the Big Bang. T
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FPA President Ian Williams and Vice President Simon Locke discuss Amnesty International's recent Ukraine Report which appeared widely August 4th titled: “Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians”.
24 hours ago on August 7th, just 3 days after their initial report, they released a statement in which they explain that Amnesty International "deeply regrets the distress and anger that our press release on the Ukrainian military’s fighting tactics has caused". Today, August 8th, the head of Amnesty International Ukraine quit her position in response to the report. Throughout all of this, Amnesty International stands by their claims.
The original report: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/08/ukraine-ukrainian-fighting-tactics-endanger-civilians/
The statement in response: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/08/statement-on-publication-of-press-release-on-ukrainian-fighting-tactics/
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China’s petulant response to the Pelosi visit raises big issues, from trade to the threat of World War III. As Speaker Pelosi is fulfilling Congress’s Taiwan Relations act – can the US allow the PRC unilateral interpretation of the deal that led to mutual recognition. How can President Biden reconcile maintaining principles with trying to wedge between Beijing and Moscow?
Vincent Wang explains to the FPA the intersection of economic and military interests in the Taiwan Straits. Does diplomatic ambiguity have limits? What are the consequences of the visit in the PRC, the US – and the world?
Vincent Wei-Cheng Wang is Senior Fellow in the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and Dean and Professor of Political Science at Adelphi University.
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Last November, 30+ journalists founded the Kyiv Independent, the English-language media outlet in Ukraine, when they were fired from the Kyiv Post for defending editorial independence.
The Kyiv Independent provides round the clock news coverage about all aspects of the war in Ukraine - and is not President Zelensky’s favorite publication but is even more unlikely to be Putin’s nomination for a Pulitzer.
Daryna Shevchenko, the CEO of the Kyiv Independent discusses with Ian Williams, FPA President of the Foreign Press Association to discuss how Ukrainian media covers the Russian invasion of Ukraine and keeps up the pressure on the authorities in Kyiv. Daryna has been a media manager, trainer, and media consultant before joining the Independent.
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FPA President Ian Williams and Vice President Simon Locke discuss the recent AP post which appeared widely July 9 titled: “Ukraine bears share of blame for nursing home-attack” about the Russian Invasion of Ukraine and later ascribing a “major share” of the blame to making Ukraine. It was picked up by VOA and the Washington Post.
From FPA President Ian Williams: The deeply flawed dispatch unequivocally blames the bulk of casualties and rights violations on Moscow and its surrogates while, quite correctly cautioning the Ukrainian forces about reported incidents. But I find it, intriguing, puzzling and shocking that the AP report distills this into a contradiction of its main conclusions by pointing the finger at Ukraine for the nursing home incident. Even the AP report on the incident that they emphasize is anomalous. The Russians and their proxies invaded and were firing on the Care Home. The Ukrainian forces could not evacuate the residents but fought back against, never let us forget, the attackers. It was the attack that made this a military site. Whose attack? The Russians.
The tenor of the report was perhaps taken from the photo-caption with the story “A United Nations report says Ukraine’s armed forces bear a large share of the blame for a deadly assault on a care home for the elderly and disabled.” The report shows the confusion of the immediate conflict but unequivocally says “That morning, soldiers from Russian affiliated armed groups attacked the care house with heavy weapons, with patients and staff still inside.”
So, the Ukrainians failed to evacuate the residents because the roads were mined, but it is a stretch to say they share the blame, and an outright lie to say that Ukrainians “bear a large, and perhaps equal, share of the blame for what happened in Stara Krasnyanka” and it is absolute misreporting to attribute that sentiment to the UN! The US “shares the blame” for 9-11 by putting the twin towers there as a target! Was it just sloppy writing and editing? Was is a succession of editors falling over backwards to be fair and even handed? If I were a Ukrainian conspiracy theorist, I would suspect that this is Biden’s spin doctors paving the way for an abandonment of Ukraine since both sides are equally immoral. Whatever the excuse, it is culpably bad journalism.
To remind you, the UN report’s major admonition to Russia is “Immediately cease the armed attack that commenced on 24 February 2022 in the territory of Ukraine and fully comply with the binding 16 March 2022 order on provisional measures of the International Court of Justice”
The original articles:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/un-says-ukraine-bears-share-of-blame-for-nursing-home-attack/2022/07/09/ea608b44-ff3d-11ec-b39d-71309168014b_story.html
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/ua/2022-06-29/2022-06-UkraineArmedAttack-EN.pdf
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Join South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini as he describes his inspiration, his creative as well as his performing processes. He is the very first African musician to be signed by the Blue Note label (https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/04/14/jazz-label-blue-note-launches-blue-note-africa-imprint/). For Makhathini, this sends a very positive message to all African musicians, especially regarding what they are allowed to aspire to, the possibilities available to them as well as to other performers.
In Conversation with FPA's Emilie Pons.
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FPA features Allan Lichtman on Repealing the Second Amendment. Faced with mortal consequences of loaded and imaginative judicial interpretations of the “right to bear arms,” Professor Lichtman suggests it is inherently flawed and past its shoot-by date.
Faced with the massacres in the classrooms, the overturning of New York’s gun control laws, Lichtman suggests alternative strategies to combat the National Rifle Association’s legislative and judiciary hostage taking. His book “Repeal the Second Amendment” was a road map to safer streets and schools – sadly ignored by the mesmerized Supreme Court Majority.
Allan Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History at American University is also author of The Case for Impeachment, and an accomplished predictor of Presidential Contests.
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Will Boris get his Bounce Back? Who decides the next British Prime Minister? Boris Johnson had an unrivaled tenacity, hanging on well after his sack-by date. Even now he clings to poop deck of his sinking government, whence all but he have fled.
FPA’s Ian Williams and Simon Locke, both British exiles, discuss what happened, what might happen now, and what it means for Britain and the rest of the world.
FPA President, Ian Williams former speech writer for UK Labour leader Neil Kinnock and thus by proxy for Joe Biden (google it) points out that Conservative Leader Johnson supported Abortion rights, gun control and had an unashamed attitude to the sexuality of his cabinet. His replacement will be picked by the Party, not the people, and as a new face against an ineffectual Labour leader could win on a hardline conservative platform.
Taiwan and Ukraine - two democracies under threat. How far can, or should, the Biden White House go to support them? Join us for a conversation on these issues with former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton.
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The Baisakhi Parade remains one of the most colorful parades in the Big Apple, embracing diversity and understanding the relevance of a philosophy of the Sikh religion to our contemporary living.
Harpreet Singh Toor is the Chairman of Public Policy & External Affairs at The Sikh Cultural Society Inc.
This episode is made possible by the Foreign Press Foundation.
In Conversation with FPA's Sarab Zavaleta.
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Join us for the FPA Arts and Culture Podcast presented each month on your favorite podcast platforms.
Join international dance artist Alina Sokulska as she discusses what is happening in her home country of Ukraine and how it is impacting Ukranian artists int he current moment.
Alina Sokulska is an internationally acclaimed dance artist, choreographer, performer, instructor and researcher. She is one of those dancers elaborating on her own dance language with intertexts of swing, blues, bebop, tap dance, UK jazz, afro-latin dance. Emilie Pons is a digital reporter and audio producer for The World, on PRI. Her work has also been featured on CBC News, Radio DW, in JazzTimes and TRT World.
Producer: Emilie Pons Associate Producer: Sam Grobmeier In association with Foreign Press Foundation.
Especially under Prime Minister Modi, India is a swing vote in every sense. After decades of rule by Congress which hovered between Russia and the Non-Aligned, the Bharatiya Janata Party swung towards the USA, but now seems to have discovered the joys of triangulation, between Russia, China, and the US while always looking at Pakistan.
At home, communitarian politics has risks and rewards electorally. Bilal Baloch, author of When Ideas Matter: Democracy and Corruption in India, and an advisor and speaker on geopolitical, business, and investment risk in emerging and frontier markets, looks at this in relation to India’s abstentions on Ukraine, surprising for a state that has put so much emphasis on sovereignty in its international relations.
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Over the Ukraine crisis the United Nations is looking like the attenuated ghost of the League of Nations which left Abyssinia swinging in the gale of fascist aggression. In the middle of a direct challenge to the UN Charter the organization is not just invisible but disregarded and seemingly irrelevant. Does it have a role beyond ritual handwringing and calls for peace? What can the UN and its SG do? Can it get its gums into this crisis?
Briefing with Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, David Smith, and Mark Seddon.
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Join VP and Director of DAG New York, Josheen Oberoi, in conversation with FPA journalist Sarab Zavaleta as they discuss DAG's newest endeavor, an international gallery focused on women artists from 20th century India.
This episode is presented by the Foreign Press Association in honor of NYC Asian Art Week and Women's History Month.
Josheen Oberoi is a gallerist and curator based out of New York. She is currently VP and Director at DAG, an international gallery focused on South Asian modern art. Prior to this, she worked as Director at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, with a focus on contemporary Southeast Asian art; Saffronart, as a Specialist in South Asian Art; and Bodhi Art as a gallerist and Associate Curator. She has worked for Miditech, where she helped produce documentary series on Indian art and architecture and other projects for the BBC. She has an MA in medieval Indian history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and an MA in South Asian art history from Florida State University.
Join us for the FPA Arts and Culture Podcast presented the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7pm EST on your favorite podcast platforms.
Executive Producer: Camilla Hellman MBE
Producer: Sarab Zavaleta
Associate Producer: Sam Grobmeier
In association with Foreign Press Foundation.
Faced with war in Ukraine, oil shortages, Gulf, Saudi and Israeli reticence to support the US diplomatically and economically, western policy towards Tehran is shifting, even as Moscow tries to use the JCPOA for leverage. Trita Parsi EVP of the Quincy Institute tries to parse the shifts in policy and see where it fits in the wider conflicts.
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They are unhappy with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and might vote against it, but many UN members will not do much about it. David Adler is a writer and economist and was foreign policy advisor to Bernie Sanders. He discusses the many reasons countries are not fully supporting the Western view of Putin’s invasion and won't support Ukraine militarily or with sanctions. David Adler will discuss the issues the newly re-non-aligned have with partisan application of International Law.
FPA Awardee Aleksandr Gorbachev explains the state of journalism in Russia. Newly escaped from Moscow he arrived in Istanbul and told the FPA about the constraints on media and commentary back home. A poignant view from a journalist who is just one of the latest exiles from Russia over the century. Aleksandr Gorbachev is a writer, editor and filmmaker who has worked extensively in independent Russian media. We welcome him back to tell it like it is. And thank him for his bravery.
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Stalin’s specter haunts the post-Soviet conflicts. Tinatin Japaradzide told correspondents about her discoveries researching her book and how Stalin’s legacy is used and abused in Ukraine, Russia, and Georgia and how it affects Putin’s current behavior.
Tinatin Japaridze, Director of Policy and Strategy at The Critical Mass joins Ian Williams, President of the Foreign Press Association for this briefing.
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Incensed by Vladimir Putin’s speech which invoked the United Nations while trampling on all its principles, FPA President Ian Williams, who has been covering the UN since before the first Iraq War was moved to suggest a way out for the organization before it sinks into the mud of Ukraine.
Eliot Higgins, Bellingcat’s founder, details fake videos and false flags ops being used to justify moving into Ukraine. He will highlight what Bellingcat’s open-source intelligence reveals about Moscow's troop movements, disinformation & alibi invention.
Ottawa Citizen columnist Tim Abray, and OntarioTech Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism’s Barbara Perry, will indicate the real drivers behind the Ottawa protests - and they are not freedom loving truckers! Many Americans want to know how militants took over Capitol Hill so easily. Canadians want to know how police allowed similar militants to take over their capital for weeks on end.
Featuring: Dr. Barbara Perry & Tim Abray
Join celebrated American producer and filmmaker Melissa Haizlip in conversation with FPA journalist Emilie Pons as they discuss Ms. Haizlip’s celebrated documentary Mr. Soul! presented by the Foreign Press Association in honor of Black History Month.
Melissa Haizlip is an American film producer, director and writer. Her 2018 documentary ‘Mr. Soul’ celebrates African American contributions to American culture. Emilie Pons is a digital reporter and audio producer for The World, on PRI. Her work has also been featured on CBC News, Radio DW, in JazzTimes and TRT World.
Join us for the FPA Arts and Culture Podcast presented the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7pm EST on your favorite podcast platforms.
Executive Producer: Camilla Hellman MBE
Producer: Emilie Pons
Associate Producer: Sam Grobmeier
In association with Foreign Press Foundation.
Former National Security Advisor and UN Ambassador John Bolton returns to the FPA to provide his insights and context around Russia, Ukraine & China.
Join us as he talks about the Biden administration’s response to Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine and its alliance with China, the endgame of Presidents Putin & Xi, and ways in which Trump’s presidency has shaped current events.
Featuring: Ambassador John Bolton & Ian Williams (President of the Foreign Press Association)
Ron Howell - veteran reporter with AP, ABC, New York Daily News and New York Newsday is a close observer of the world, the US, the city, and the media. He now teaches journalism at Brooklyn College and has been studying Black political leadership in New York, hence his last two books, including this latest “warts and all” portrait of Reverend Al Sharpton. Through the 1980s, the mainstream press demonized Sharpton as a buffoon, a fake minister, a hustler, an opportunist, a demagogue, a race traitor, and an anti-Semite, even as their reflexive coverage helped make him what he is today. As host of MSNBC’s PoliticsNation news program, Sharpton has more viewers than those reporters ever had readers. Today, Sharpton occupies a pedestal that would have shocked the white newspaper reporters who covered and often scorned him three decades ago. His chum Eric Adams is Mayor of New York – and Rhode Island University has just revoked the honorary degree of former Mayor and Sharpton baiter Rudi Giuliani! In his perceptive coverage, Ron Howell relates Sharpton’s promotion and tells about the glory years of American newspapers, when Sharpton began his rise and about the politicians who intersected with Sharpton as he climbed the ladder.
As the Russian Troops shocked many observers by pulling out from Kazakhstan, the FPA hosted Nina Khrushcheva, New School professor and grand-daughter of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, to discuss the local and global implications of the affair with FPA President who had previously worked in the country. It was clear that the foreign interference was conjured up but the authorities in Russia and Khazakhstan and that there were plenty of reasons for locals to protest, but also a strong suspicion that clan supporters of the previous avaricious strongman Nazarbayev, worried about being sidelined by his replacement, were implicated in the violence. Getting Nazarbayev’s hand out of the till is a step forward, even though no one is sure where he is now, but he was masterful at balancing domestic and geopolitical influences. The cloud of uncertainty will spread across the region, with global implications.
FPA member Hollie McKay has been covering the transition in Afghanistan and shares her experiences of investigating crimes against humanity in a contested war zone and from inside Afghanistan and reports to members about the real situation after twenty years of Western intervention. Despite the gloomy foreboding, many of them justified, Hollie carries on reporting from within the Taliban state. Ian Williams, FPA president, moderates this briefing.
International observers fear that the coming Nicaraguan presidential elections 'have lost all credibility’ after President Daniel Ortega's arrests of critics and potential challengers. The Nicaraguan opposition complains that Ortega's officials and state security forces have brutally cracked down on protests and the media, which has led many journalists to flee the country in fear for their lives. Nicaraguan journalists, Cindy Regidor and Yamlek Mojica join CPJ's Latin America Program Coordinator, Natalie Southwick for this briefing with FPA President Ian Williams moderating.
"US China Tech War: What Chinese Tech History Reveals About Future Tech Rivalry" by China Money Network founder Nina Xiang was released this month. Nina Xiang and Ian Williams discuss the book, and China's history in technological development and how it defines the current tech clashes between the US and China.
We are joined by Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the new situation in Afghanistan.
Richard Lapper's latest book "Beef, Bible and Bullets: Brazil in the Age of Bolsonaro" explains the rise of the maverick right-wing populist in Latin America's largest country. It describes how the country's worst ever recession, growing criminal violence and an unparalleled corruption scandal led to the unexpected victory of an extremist political outsider. It also explains how rapidly expanding evangelical churches, wealthy agribusiness groups and a powerful security establishment – the so-called bible, beef and bullets lobby – has brought to office the Brazil's most conservative government since the dictatorships of the1970s. Richard Lapper joins FPA President Ian Williams to discuss the book and what's to come for Brazil, the continent’s superpower.
FPA President Ian Williams in conversation with Tom Osborne, former foreign correspondent for World News Tonight under Peter Jennings. Osborne is the author of the new book "The Politics of War: My Ten Year Journey with Peter Jennings." Ian Williams and Tom Osborne, a long-time associate of Peter Jennings, reflect on Jennings' tenure as the host of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 to 2005, and their own experiences working as foreign correspondents during the September 11 attacks and throughout the global conflict that followed.
Member of Lok Sabha (Indian Parliament) Dr. Shashi Tharoor has been a vocal critic of India's mishandling of COVID-19.
This week, he was in the news for participating in a protest organized by Indian Youth Congress in Kerala; the protest took place at a 'roadside ICU,' a day after Kerala reported a single-day count of 31,445 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.
Confirmed cases in Kerala reached 3,883,429. A Member of Lok Sabha since 2009, Dr. Shashi Tharoor has also spoken out about border disputes with China along the Himalayas and campaigned for the United Nations to open its doors to elected representatives.
Dr. Shashi Tharoor joins Ian Williams to discuss the Indian government's mishandling of COVID-19, Indian foreign policy - specifically in relation to the U.S. and China - and more. Dr Shashi Tharoor, former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and third-term Member of the Indian Parliament and former Minister, is the bestselling author of twenty-two books, both fiction and non-fiction, notably his recent "An Era of Darkness” explaining how British Colonialism underdeveloped India.
A penetrating critic of the Modi government in both its domestic and foreign policy, he will happily field questions about India’s potential and actual role in world affairs.
Three hundred years after Acts of Union united the parliaments of England and Scotland Professor Mark Blyth regretfully argues that a separation is almost inevitable. Scots voted to stay in the EU but the votes of their southern neighbors pulled them out. Economically, the failure of London’s economic model to deliver growth to the rest of the UK and the record of the government are pushing Scotland out of the UK.
Blyth points to the overwhelming and growing support of younger voters for independence who have been left by years of austerity with little to lose from cutting the ties. He discussed the international ramifications, the antipathy of EU countries like Spain to successful secessions, the implications for the UN and NATO if the home of British nuclear weapons pulled out, the reaction of other countries, the US and even China in terms of military and diplomatic options for an independent Scotland and foreign direct investment.
Political Economist Mark Blyth dispassionately and objectively discussed the options and pitfalls with FPA President Ian Williams.
How did the creation of NPR in 1971 and CNN in 1980 come about - and how did these two news organizations, after struggling for years before taking off, ultimately change broadcast news forever?
Journalist and author Lisa Napoli joins FPA President Ian Williams to explore the history of the origins of NPR and CNN and how they made 24-hour rolling news, every minute of every hour of every day, a standard of news delivery. A veteran journalist herself, Napoli is the author of “Susan, Linda, Nina and Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR” and “Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News.
Napoli worked at the start of the World Wide Web at a unique experiment at the NYTimes, later as internet correspondent at MSNBC/MSNBC.com. A native New Yorker, she's written four books, her first, Radio Shangri-La, is about how she helped bring radio to the kingdom of Bhutan at the dawn of democratic rule.
Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations tells the FPA about his experiences, including his politely suppressed anger at the rulers of Sudan, Morocco, Myanmar and other places who tested his near-infinite patience to destruction with one notable example being Netanyahu “never an amicable person,” whose conversations left Ban "feeling bitter.” He explained how he managed a ceasefire in Gaza and how Israel compensated the UN for destroying its facilities there! He discussed Haiti and the cholera epidemic, and Western Sahara climate change, and how he faced up to Putin on LGBT athletes at the Olympics and without much hope described his frequently thwarted attempts to visit North Korea. Lots of material for all members!
Bellingcat is constantly accused of making up information, but they can assert and say “No, we have done the research and here's the evidence.” Founder, Eliot Higgins says “They’ve accused us of being CIA, MI6 and now they’ve even ‘de-personed’ me. There are rumors in Russia that I don’t even exist, that my family don’t exist.” He discusses the “Counterfactual Community,” the networks people who can be relied upon to defend or deny evidence of atrocities whether through ideology or a deep disbelief in governments and mainstream media.
Higgins explains that “people are often drawn into conspiracies through a process of radicalization in counter information communities – leading to online radicalization and counter to authorities or anyone who opposes the information,” and invokes the dissimulation over WMD in Iraq as a catalyst for such mistrust. In contrast Higgins counters “open-source research is simple, it’s transparent and it’s about checking the evidence. We are always trying to be as transparent as possible on the sources that we use. We fact check everything that comes to us. When anyone comes to us with information there is a transparent process to validate it.”
Press briefing with Craig Unger, author of American Kompromat and Yuri Borysovych Shvets - a former Major in the KGB, operating between 1980 and 1990. Ian Williams, President of the Foreign Press Association interviews.
Unger’s new book exposes how a relatively trivial targeting operation by the KGB’s New York station over forty years ago tried to recruit a prominent local property developer as an asset—and triggered events that morphed into the greatest intelligence bonanza in history. It recounts how this compromised coterie reached all the way into the office of the Attorney General, advancing themselves and their influence.
Based on exclusive interviews with dozens of high-level sources—Soviets who resigned from the KGB and moved to the United States, former CIA officers, FBI counterintelligence agents, lawyers at white-shoe Washington firms--and analysis of thousands of pages of FBI investigations, police investigations, and news articles in English, Russian, and Ukrainian, American Kompromat shows that from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, kompromat operations leveraged the murky secrets of some the most powerful people in the US into potent weapons for Moscow.
Joining us on the panel, Yuri Borysovych Shvets - a former Major in the KGB, operating between 1980 and 1990. From April 1985 to 1987 he worked in the Washington, D.C. Rezidentura of the First Chief Directorate. While there, he held a cover job as a correspondent for TASS, a Soviet state-owned news agency.
Professor Damian Radcliffe and Will Church, Head of Journalism and Media Programmes at the Thomson Reuters Foundation join Ian Williams of the Foreign Press Association USA to expand on their recently published report on the impact of COVID-19 on Journalism in Emerging Economies and the Global South. Across the world, the virus has affected media as well as the health of journalists.
The pandemic has driven fake news and evoked a surge of threats against the media in emerging economies. Sent out to cover the epidemic, hundreds of our colleagues have died, others have been threatened by governments and proprietors for reporting inexpedient truths, in some countries they have been banned from government press conferences, while 17 countries have introduced double-edged laws against “fake” news, where governments decide “what is truth.”
Professor Damian Radcliffe and Will Church, Head of Journalism and Media Programmes at the Thomson Reuters Foundation expand on their recently published report detailing the virus's toll on the health of media and of media workers drawing upon their extensive global network of Foundation alumni. A practicing journalist, Professor Damian Radcliffe is Professor in Journalism and an affiliate of the Department for Middle East and North Africa Studies (MENA), at the University of Oregon. Will Church is Head of Journalism and Media Programmes at the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Mr Church will share context and information about why the Thomson Reuters Foundation commissioned this report, and the nature of the journalist alumni who contributed so heavily to it.