sign in sign up
<<
Home , David Shuster, Katharine Weymouth, Leon Dash, Marcus Brauchli, Minky Worden, Nisid Hajari

THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • September 2013 A Summer of Surprise Media Sales and Deals by Susan Kille told New York magazine. “But on Much has happened on the busi- immediate reflection, I thought that ness side of since the in the universe of potential buyers, Bulletin took a summer break. among people who have long-term The event media reporters least vision, who are civic-minded and expected was for Jeffrey P. Bezos, public-spirited, was an the founder of Amazon, to buy The eminently suited candidate.” Washington Post and affiliated pub- “What Don Graham did in decid- Jeff Bezos lications. The $250 million sale an- thinker. He is keeping on Marty ing to seek out a new owner for was a truly brave nounced August 5 was expected to Baron, executive editor; Fred Hi- close within 60 days. Everything and unselfish act,” said Brauchli, att, editor of the editorial page, and about the sale was a surprise: that who after he stepped down as editor Publisher , the Graham family would part with remained at the company as a vice Graham’s niece. The Post, a price that would have president. been laughable a few years ago and, “When I learned of the news, I In a sale that was expected, even most particularly, the buyer. was as surprised as everyone else,” if the price seemed disappointing, But before a news cycle passed, said , an OPC Co. sold its the idea that for the first time some- member and Baron’s predecessor (Continued on Page 4) one with a digital background would be in control of a major newspaper Close OPC Election Decided at Annual Meeting grew intriguing. Don Graham, chairman and EVENT RECAP: AUGUST 20 chief executive of The Washington by Aimee Vitrak Post Co., said he believed Bezos of- The OPC Annual Meeting took fers the best chance for The Post to place on August 20 at Club Quarters thrive after eight decades of Graham in Rockefeller Center. The venue family ownership. Changes were in- was changed in early August when evitable even without a sale. Bezos’s Club Quarters on 45th Street had Sonya K. Fry estimated fortune of $25 billion closed its restaurant and bar. Ser- After the meeting, from left: Yvonne vices are promised to resume in the means he doesn’t need to turn a Dunleavy, Robert Nickelsberg, coming weeks with an outside firm Cyma Rubin, Michael Serrill quick profit and can absorb losses. operating food and beverage service. and Bill Holstein. He is an innovator and a long-range The meeting began with elec- break the tie. The Associate Board tion results. This year’s contest, as members elected are Abi Wright and Inside. . . requested by members at last year’s Daniel Sieberg. meeting, had 10 people running for Voting in the election was held Taiwan Event...... 2 seven Active Board positions and on Balloteer.com with 87 ballots cast online and five members who re- Helen Thomas Remembered...... 3 four people running for two Asso- ciate Board positions. The election quested paper ballots. The number of New Members ...... 4 results are as follows: Charles Wal- ballots cast in the previous election, lace, Martin Dickson, Martin Smith, which was not a contested election People...... 5-10 Seymour Topping, Jane Ciabattari, and used only paper ballots, had 62 People Remembered...... 10-11 Robert Nickelsberg and Evelyn Leo- participants. pold. The Associate Board positions OPC Foundation Executive Di- New Books...... 12 required Active Board members to (Continued on Page 2) A Forecast on Taiwan’s Democratic Influence on China His latest book is Conceptions of Chinese Democra- EVENT PREVIEW: SEPTEMBER 11 cy: Reading Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang The island of Taiwan — which considers itself the Ching-kuo. The book describes how these leaders dis- Republic of China but which mainland China consid- cussed democracy and compares Western and Chinese ers a renegade territory — has enjoyed a robust form of democratic traditions. democracy in recent years, proving that democracy can His talk titled “Can Taiwan’s democratization success flourish in a Chinese culture. Can any of its experience be workable in Mainland China?” will focus on how dif- be translated onto the Chinese main- ferent models of democracy in the land, where the political system is Chinese tradition align with such dominated by the Communist Party? large tasks as economic develop- Addressing that question on Sep- ment. It draws upon discussions tember 11 will be David J. Lorenzo, on those topics by both past Chi- an associate professor in the College nese leaders, current members of of International Affairs, National the Chinese Communist Party, and Chengchi University in Taipei, Tai- contemporary democracy activists wan. He received a Ph.D in politi- in the People’s Republic of China. cal science from Yale and teaches David Lorenzo The event will be held in the of- courses in international relations and political theory. His fice building of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office primary research is in the realm of political arguments, in New York (1 East 42nd Street, New York). The talk particularly the use of concepts and terms of discourse in begins at 6:30 p.m. and will be followed by a brief con- the justification of policy positions, including those in- versation between the OPC’s Bill Holstein and Dr. Lo- volving political freedoms like freedom of religion and renzo and a Q&A session. Reception will follow. RSVP democracy. to Abby Lee at [email protected]

(Continued From Page 2) Club’s anniversary in 2014. Some tography and a series of receptions ideas include bell ringing at the New throughout the year. rector Jane Reilly reported good York Stock Exchange in April, light- Jonathan Dahl inquired about a news from previous scholars, see ing the Empire State Building in blue redesign for opcofamerica.org and “OPC Scholars” page 5 for details. on the night of the Awards Dinner, those present agreed it is time for a Brian Byrd, head of the 75th An- a photo exhibit of past Robert Capa fresh look for the website in the lead- niversary Committee, reported on winners co-curated and hosted with up to the OPC’s 75th Anniversary proposals for events to celebrate the the International Center for Pho- year. OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA • BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT SECRETARY Jane Ciabattari Santiago Lyon Charles Wallace PAST PRESIDENTS Michael Serrill Jonathan Dahl Freelance Writer VP and Director of Financial Writer EX-OFFICIO Assistant Managing Senior Editor NPR.org, Daily Beast Photography David A. Andelman Editor ASSOCIATE BOARD John Corporon Bloomberg Markets Deidre Depke ­MEMBERS Allan Dodds Frank ACTIVE BOARD Executive Editor Marcus Mabry Brian Byrd Alexis Gelber FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Jacqueline Albert- Editor at Large Program Officer William J. Holstein Tim Ferguson Simon The New York Times NYS Health Marshall Loeb Editor U.S. Bureau Chief Martin Dickson Foundation Larry Martz Forbes Asia Politique Internationale U.S. Managing Editor Robert Nickelsberg Roy Rowan Freelance Sarah Lubman Leonard Saffir SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Amar C. Bakshi Photojournalist Partner Larry Smith Abigail Pesta JD/MBA student Arlene Getz Brunswick Group Richard B. Stolley Freelance Journalist Yale University Editor-in-Charge, Media Romesh Ratnesar Thomson Reuters Deputy Editor Daniel Sieberg EXECUTIVE THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Rebecca Bloomberg Head of Media Outreach DIRECTOR Toni Reinhold Blumenstein Azmat Khan Businessweek Google Sonya K. Fry Editor in Charge, Deputy Editor in Chief Senior Digital Producer New York Desk The Wall Street Journal Al Jazeera Martin Smith Minky Worden EDITOR Reuters President Director of Global Aimee Vitrak Paul Brandus Evelyn Leopold Rain Media Initiatives TREASURER West Wing Report Independent Journalist Dorinda Elliott United Nations Seymour Topping Global Affairs Editor Howard Chua-Eoan Emeritus Abi Wright OPC Conde Nast Traveler Former News Director Dafna Linzer Professor of Director ISSN-0738-7202 Time Managing Editor International Journalism Alfred I. duPont – ­Copyright © 2002 MSNBC.com Columbia University Over­seas Press Club of Awards America 40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 2 Helen Thomas, the Grand Dame of White House Reporters by Edith Lederer group of women journalists, many In an era when men controlled also pioneers in cracking the glass and ran the media, Helen Thomas ceiling including her AP competitor became a trailblazer for women by at the White House, Fran Lewine, speaking up and challenging presi- who was one of her closest friends. dents with questions that were of- I competed against Helen during ten tougher than those asked by ’s visit to South Ko- male colleagues. She wasn’t afraid rea when I was based in of backlash from politicians or the (from 1978-81) and we became close From left: Sonya Fry, “boys” in the press room. She was an friends through Fran Lewine. When Helen Thomas and Edie Lederer aggressive reporter in the best sense. I came to the UN, I used to go to in November 2010 Her goal was to probe for the truth Washington D.C. often to stay with Helen Thomas was a legend and whatever that took, she would Fran, and I would be part of those as a White House correspondent go after it. Saturday night dinners. but she will be remembered best But Helen also had a softer side. Helen wasn’t awed or blinded by for breaking down barriers against She was devoted to her large Leba- the presidency. She loved America women journalists. Thomas, who nese-American family and to a very was 92, died July 20 at her home and believed that our democracy in Washington D.C. As the first large circle of friends, young and worked because journalists could woman assigned to the White old. She cared for her late husband ask presidents tough questions and House full time by a wire service and former AP competitor, Doug keep them from becoming kings in and the first to head a wire service Cornell, for years after he got Al- glass cages. She often said she was bureau there, shecovered every president from John F. Kennedy zheimer’s and never complained. asking the questions that ordinary to Barack Obama for United Press For many years, she went to dinner people wanted answered. And if they International and, later, Hearst every Saturday night with a small made 10 presidents squirm, so be it. Newspapers. She worked for UPI for almost 60 years before resign- From her 2000 OPC Awards Dinner keynote address, she began ing in 2000, a day after it was tak- by saying she felt like an interloper but went on: “...I am here to tell en over by a group with links to the Unification Church. you about walking through the minefields of the West Wing, seeking As dean of the White House information that has been controlled, managed, manipulated and press corps, she delivered her sig- spun before it’s handed out.” nature line at the end of every news ... conference: “Thank you, Mr. Presi- dent.” She asked tough questions “I have never wasted my sympathy on presidents and that’s be- and could be combative, particu- cause I think they have the greatest honor that can come to anyone larly when she felt she was being and that is the trust of the American people.” denied access. She stepped into ... the spotlight during the Watergate era when she received late-night “As for the press, we don’t expect to win popularity contests. We phone calls from Martha Mitchell, are the self-appointed, self-annointed watchdogs of democracy.” the wife of Attorney General John Mitchell, discussing the scandal. by Sonya K. Fry had “two roads to travel and always Thomas married a professional ri- I can still see Helen standing took the wrong one.” For Carter, his val, Douglas Cornell of the Asso- at the podium in the living room mother was asked if she was proud ciated Press, in 1971. He died in 1982. She joined the OPC in 2001. of Club Quarters addressing a full of her son and she asked, “Which She retired from Hearst in 2010, house of members and guests in June one?” amid a firestorm for saying in an 2002. She officially talked about her The Sunday New York Times ran interview that Israeli Jews should new book Thanks for the Memories, a front page story and CNN had ex- “get the hell out of Palestine” and Mr. President, but she sidetracked tensive coverage. She had a long and “go home” to Germany, Poland and told us we should rally and do distinguished career as a journalist and America. Thomas apologized, writing about the remarks, “They something about President Bush and and broke many barriers for women do not reflect my heartfelt belief his march to war. During the ques- in journalism. Trailblazer, passion- that peace will come to the Middle tion and answer she relayed quips of ate, legend, inspiration, dedicated — East only when all parties recog- the various U.S. Presidents she had these are some of the words of praise nize the need for mutual respect covered. For Nixon, Thomas said that resonated throughout the obitu- and tolerance. May that day come that during Watergate, he always aries of Helen. soon.” — by Susan Kille

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 3 (Continued From Page 1) pressed interest last spring, Tribune reporters, liberals New England Media Group, which includes The Boston and nonpartisan watchdog groups expressed concern. Globe, for $70 million, a fraction of the $1.1 billion the The spokeswoman confirmed a report on The Daily company paid for The Globe alone in 1993. The buyer is Caller, a conservative website, that a deal without web- John W. Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox. sites that include CareerBuilder.com removes an impor- Elsewhere, the industry news was about splits of tant revenue stream. even greater consequence than the summer buzz about The next day, Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the Murdoch divorce. the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he could be interested in The months-long pro- buying the Los Angeles Times and for cess to divide Rupert the right price. Walter lives in Chicago and is a founder Murdoch’s News Corp. and chief executive of Guggenheim Partners, a privately into two entities was held financial services firm with more than $180 billion completed July 1 when in assets. He may have close competition. While in town 21st Century Fox, the for a series between the Red Sox and the Dodgers, Hen- more profitable entertain- ry toured the Los Angeles Times offices on August 26. ment arm that includes Newspapers and baseball have played together before; Fox Broadcasting and a Tribune owned the Chicago Cubs from 1981 to 2009. Hollywood film studio, began trading separately from The uncertainty for Time Warner’s publishing divi- News Corp., which is now the publishing arm that in- sion continues after CEO Jeff Bewkes said in August cludes The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Harp- the company would delay a Time Inc. spinoff until early erCollins and in the United Kingdom, The Times, The 2014. Bewkes announced in March that he would spin Sunday Times and The Sun. off Time Inc. to focus on the more profitable TV and Investors had long complained that the 120 newspa- film divisions. pers that had been part of the original News Corp. low- And in both a split and a sale, was sepa- ered profits. Those complaints grew after last summer rated from The Daily Beast and sold by Barry Diller’s when a phone hacking scandal at the company’s Brit- IAC/InterActiveCorp on August 3 to International Busi- ish newspaper division prompted the abrupt closure of ness Times, a digital news company, for an undisclosed News of the World, one of the most profitable papers. price. IBT said it plans to build Newsweek’s global on- Murdoch is chairman and chief line franchise. Newsweek stopped printing last Decem- executive of 21st Century Fox, ber. In 2010, IAC paid The Washington Post Co. $1 plus as well as executive chairman of $40 million in pension obligations to buy Newsweek. News Corp. Robert Thomson, a former editor of The Times, man- WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS aging editor of The Wall Street Lynsey Addario John Moore Journal and editor-in-chief of Freelance Staff Photographer Dow Jones, is chief executive of Robert Thomson Photojournalist Getty Images the new News Corp. The publish- Active Resident ing unit lost $2.1 billion in the last financial year but Active Overseas starts its new life with $2.6 billion in cash and no debt. Spencer Platt Meanwhile, a week after doubling its television port- Yaffa Fredrick Staff Photographer – folio by agreeing to buy 19 local stations for $2.7 billion Managing Editor News on July 1, Tribune Co. announced it would spin off its World Policy Journal Getty Images Active Resident - Young newspapers, which include the Los Angeles Times, Chi- Active Resident cago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel Nisid Hajari and The Hartford Courant, while keeping the faster- Asia Editor ADMISSIONS growing TV stations, websites that are separate from the Bloomberg View COMMITTEE newspapers and its real estate holdings, including the Linda Goetz Holmes, Tribune Tower in Chicago. Months earlier the company Active Overseas Chair said it was considering selling the papers. A split would Reinstatement George Bookman not preclude a sale but waiting for a spinoff would make Felice Levin the sale tax-free to current shareholders. Andrew Kreig Robert Nickelsberg A spokeswoman for Charles and David Koch said on Investigative Reporter, Charles Wallace August 22 that the brothers concluded it was not eco- Radio Host, Author nomically viable to buy the Tribune papers. When the Washington, DC combatively conservative billionaire industrialists ex- Active Non Resident

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 4 PEOPLE... by Susan Kille [email protected]

OPC SCHOLARS in The Associated Press bureau in Foundation internship there, will Mexico City. cover Russia and the rest of the for- mer Soviet Union. Having left for a long weekend, Katie Paul, the Irene Corbally Kuhn Tess Taylor, who won the Harp- winner in 2007 and a contributor to er’s Magazine scholarship in 2004, OPC’s Global Parachute website, is the author of The Forage House was denied re-entry to Jordan, where [Red Hen Press, August], a book of she had spent the previous year. Al- poetry that Pub- Nicholas and Anna though she never received an official lisher’s Weekly Nicholas Confessore, a political explanation from Jordanian authori- calls one of the reporter at The New York Times who ties, she did hear through back chan- “year’s most excit- won the 1998 Harper’s Magazine nels that she was considered guilty ing poetry titles.” Award, is now a husband. According of “sedition against the government” Her work has ap- to the wedding announcement in The and “Satan worship,” and a friend peared in The At- Times, Anna Chloe Hoffman, who was detained for questioning about lantic, the Boston Tess Taylor works at the Apartment Therapy Paul’s reporting on Syria. Review, The Times website, and Nicholas Francis Alex- Literary Supplement, Memorious ander Confessore were married July After “The Hard Life of Celeb- and The New Yorker. Taylor’s book 13 in Quogue, New York. Confes- rity Elephants,” his first piece for the tour brought her to New York on Au- sore was part of a team at The Times New York Times Magazine was pub- gust 20. that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for lished on August 18, Rollo Romig breaking news for reporting on the said he is at work on a second story WINNERS downfall of former New York Gov- for the magazine. Romig, who won Abigail Pesta, second vice presi- ernor Elliot Spitzer. the 2008 Roy Rowan scholarship, dent of the OPC, received two recent left his job as the editor at The honors. The Association for Women Jeff Horwitz, the Fred Wiegold New Yorker at the end of last year in Communications bestowed a winner in 2009, is a 2014 Knight- and has spent most of 2013 in India Clarion Award for online journalism Bagehot Fellow at Columbia Uni- as a freelance writer. After graduat- for her Daily Beast report on a grow- versity. He has been at American ing with a master’s from New York ing national movement of parents Banker since graduating from Co- University, he went to Phnom Penh fighting sex-offender laws that jail lumbia with a master’s in business as an OPC Foundation intern at the their sons for teenage sex. Pesta won journalism. At American Banker, he Cambodia Daily. He plans to return a second-place National Headliner has won five awards from the Soci- to New York in the fall and then head Award for magazine feature writing ety of American Business Editors to Turkey next year. for a trio of Newsweek articles on a and Writers for investigative and en- variety of subjects: a sex slave turned terprise reporting. He was a finalist radio host in Cambodia, a Louisville for a 2012 Gerald Loeb Award. teen who tweeted against her attack- ers and a Detroit prosecutor tackling Michael E. Miller, who won 11,000 unsolved rapes. the Stan Swinton award in 2009, received a 2012 Sigma Delta Chi Allyse Pulliam, a Award for excellence in Deadline native with a photography degree Reporting for a non-daily publica- from Pratt Institute, won this year’s tion from the Society of Profes- An elephant festival in Kerala. Emerging Photojournalists Award sional Journalists. He won for a Mi- Max Seddon, who received the from Media for Social Justice. She ami New Times report titled “Death Stan Swinton scholarship in 2012, is won for work focusing on the dif- Trap,” which told the story of four now the correspondent for ficulties of Myanmar’s health care robbers gunned down by police dur- BuzzFeed, a news website. Seddon, system. Before recently starting ing a 2011 sting operation. Miller who stayed on as a stringer for the work at the Times Herald-Record in had an OPC Foundation internship AP in Moscow following his OPC (Continued on Page 6)

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 5 (Continued From Page 5) Egypt Erupts Middletown, New York, she spent by Susan Kille a year and a half freelancing and After ousting President Mohammed Morsi, the Egyptian government working for non-governmental orga- installed by Gen. Abdel Fattah El Sisi has attempted to influence coverage nizations in Southeast Asia. of turmoil within the country by closing outlets that supported Morsi and ac- cusing foreign journalists of bias and ignoring facts. Many journalists report being targeted. They have been forced to turn over photos and have been PRESS FREEDOM detained and attacked. Some have died. WASHINGTON: James Risen, Mick Deane, a veteran cameraman a reporter for The New York Times, with the British broadcaster Sky News, has asked U.S. Attorney General was killed on the particularly bloody Eric Holder Jr. to withdraw a sub- day of August 14 when security forces poena requiring his testimony about stormed protests camps in Cairo and a confidential source. Revised Jus- hundreds of Morsi supporters died. A Sky News colleague said a sniper shot tice Department guidelines for ac- Deane as he lifted his camera. The quiring information from journalists Committee to Protect Journalists said call tactics like subpoenas “extraor- Mick Deane Deane was the first Western reporter dinary measures” for use as a “last to die on assignment in Egypt since the resort,” On July 19, a divided federal group started keeping such records in the early 1990s. appeals court ruled that Risen must OPC’s Freedom of the Press Committee wrote Sisi the next day: testify in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, “The blood on the streets and squares of Egypt have sent shock waves around the world. It is not the role of the Overseas Press Club of Ameri- a former CIA official charged with ca (OPC) to express opprobrium for the politics and policies at the heart leaking classified information. of your country’s current roils. However, we are appalled at the deaths of several journalists and persistent reports of the targeting of reporters ISTANBUL: In a trial that tasked with gathering information about recent events,” the committee dragged on for five years, a special wrote in a letter signed by Howard Chua-Eoan, FOP chairman, and Mi- court convicted all but 21 of the 275 chael Serrill, OPC president. defendants for an alleged plot known “We demand that the Egyptian military and security forces foreswear any new threats to journalists assigned to shed light on the crisis in your as the Ergenekon conspiracy to county,” the FOP letter went on to say. “Furthermore, we urge you to take overthrow Turkey’s Islamist-rooted specific efforts to protect these reporters and correspondents — regardless government. At least 20 journalists of nationality — as they pursue the complicated truths that have emerged were sentenced August 5 to prison during this time of troubles. terms ranging from six to 34 years. “It is critical that journalists be allowed to do their job. Only with clarity The highest-profile defendant, Ilker can chaos be dissipated. Only with a full airing of the plight of the Egyptian Basbug, a former chief of staff of people — of all political allegiances — can disaster be averted.” Chua-Eoan said at the OPC annual meeting that the committee will the military, received a life sentence. continue to monitor the situation in Egypt, especially as the new regime The case divided public opinion, develops its visa regulations for journalists. exposing deep divisions in Turkey At least three other journalists died in Cairo August 14: Habiba Ahmed between Islamists and secularists. Abd Al-Aziz, a journalist with the Dubai-based weekly Xpress making a Reporters Without Borders (RSF), personal visit to Egypt, was hit in the head by a shot fired by a sniper; who had representatives at the hear- Mosab el-Shami, a photojournalist for Rassd news website, died of gun- ing, said: “We are here to yet again shot wounds; Ahmed Abdel Gawad, a reporter for the state-run Al Akh- bar newspaper, died while covering the crackdown at Rabaah al-Adawiya demonstrate our support for those mosque. who have been jailed because of Journalists injured that day included Reuters photographer Asmaa their work as journalists and to point Waguih, who was shot in her foot, and Tarek Abbas, a reporter for the out that Turkey currently holds the Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan, who had gunshot injuries to an eye and a world record in this category.” leg. Al-Ahram newspaper correspondent Tamer Abdel-Raouf was shot The Committee to dead on August 19 as he and a colleague passed a police checkpoint in CARACAS: the northern governorate of Beheira. Protect Journalists condemned an Two Egyptian journalists died during earlier protests this summer. August ruling by a Venezuelan judge Salah al-Din Hassan with independent news website Shaab Masr, was banning publication of violent pho- killed on June 29 by a homemade bomb thrown into a demonstration in tographs and imposing hefty fines. Port Said. On July 8, a sniper killed Ahmed Assem el-Senousy, a pho- Judge Betilde Araque prohibited the tographer for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice newspaper, Caracas-based dailies El Nacional who was covering clashes in Cairo.

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 6 and Tal Cual from publishing “imag- at least 72 journalists were fired or ate Groklaw, which covered complex es of violent content, guns, physical forced to take leave or had resigned issues involving technology and law, aggression, bloody scenes and naked in the six weeks after the start of the without e-mail and since e-mails’ cadavers” and fined both the equiv- unrest. privacy can’t be guaranteed, she can alent of one percent of their 2009 no longer do the site’s work. earnings. The case stems from an August 2010 news report in El Na- MURDERS cional on rising crime in Venezuela Narendra Dabholkar, a promi- that was illustrated with an archival nent campaigner against religious photo that showed corpses piled up superstition, was shot and killed in a morgue. In an act of solidarity, August 20 while on a morning walk Tal Cual published the image three in the western Indian city of Pune. days later as authorities moved to Dabholkar was editor of Sadhana, a crack down on El Nacional. Both weekly Marathi-language print mag- papers said they would appeal. azine promoting scientific thought and that covers topics including KUWAIT CITY: Activists, social caste, politics, and religion. Extrem- media users and human rights de- Kathleen Carroll addresses a ist Hindus were reportedly outraged fenders jailed for insulting Kuwait’s U.N. Security Council meeting. by his campaign to outlaw the reli- emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al- gious practices of some ascetics. Sabah, were freed August 7 under a NEW YORK: Speaking July pardon announced to mark the end 17 at the first U.N. Security Coun- Two Guatemalan journalists died of Ramadan, the month of fasting as- cil discussion about the protection in August. Carlos Alberto Orellana sociated with forgiveness. In a year- of journalists, four journalists said Chávez, known for denouncing cor- long crackdown on politically sensi- more must be done to protect re- ruption as an anchor for a Guatemala tive comments, dozens of Kuwaitis porters risking their lives in conflict City cable TV channel, is the fourth were charged with insulting the emir, situations. Associated Press Execu- journalist killed in Guatemala this especially online, and some were tive Editor Kathleen Carroll, vice year. His body was found August 19 sentenced to up to 11 years in jail. chairwoman of CPJ, said “most jour- on a dirt road. Less than two weeks Despite the pardon, it remains illegal nalists who die today are not caught earlier, Jesús Lima died after being to insult the emir. in some wartime crossfire, they are shot twice outside Sultana Radio, the murdered just because of what they station where he hosted a music and ISTANBUL: Yavuz Baydar, do. And those murders are rarely information program. a prominent Turkish journalist and ever solved; the killers rarely ever ombudsmen for the pro-government punished.” Also testifying were AFP Ahmed Sharif Hussein, a tech- Sabah newspaper, was fired July 23, Somalia correspondent Mustafa nician for the state-run broadcaster a few days after The New York Times Haji Abdinur, who said he’s called Radio Mogadishu, was shot to death published his fiery op-ed criticizing “a dead man walking” because of August 17, the same day that a firing the “shameful role the dangers reporting in Mogadishu; squad executed a man found guilty of Turkey’s media NBC chief foreign correspondent of killing a journalist. Two armed conglomerates in Richard Engel, who was kidnapped men dressed in student uniforms at- subverting press by pro-regime gunmen in northern tacked Sharif, the sixth media em- freedom.” After Syria and held for five days in 2012; ployee in Somalia killed so far this the Gezi Park pro- and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, a foreign year, outside his home. On July 7, tests in Istanbul in Yavuz Baydar correspondent for who gunmen in the semiautonomous late May, Baydar’s was jailed in Libya and Afghanistan. region of Puntland killed Liban editors grew uncomfortable with Abdullahi Farah, who worked for his criticism of the government. Af- Editor Pamela Jones said she London-based satellite channel Kal- ter two of his columns were spiked, had no choice but close her award- san TV. Also in July, two journalists he wrote the piece for The Times. winning website Groklaw because were shot in the southern port city of (And bravo to The Times for mak- it cannot operate under current U.S Kismayu, with one wounded criti- ing it available online in Turkish.) surveillance policies. In an August cally. The execution of Aden Sheikh The Turkish Journalists Union said 20 post, Jones wrote she can’t oper- (Continued on Page 8)

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 7 (Continued From Page 7) VOA’s Herman Tours North Korea Abdi for last year’s murder of Has- by Susan Kille san Yusuf Absuge, a reporter for It’s always good to leave on a high point. Steve Herman, an OPC Radio Maanta, was seen as part of member, recently ended his three-year assignment as Voice of America’s the Somali government’s efforts to Northeast Asia bureau chief based in Seoul with a nine-day reporting trip stop attacks against the news media. inside reclusive North Korea. This year, the government began of- Herman and CNN’s Paula Hancocks accompanied two decorat- fering rewards of $50,000 for tips ed U.S. veterans of the who were on a mission to recover leading to the arrests of the killers of the remains of a fellow avia- journalists. tor whose aircraft crashed at the Chosin Reservoir during Azzedine Kousad, a presenter a brutal battle 63 years ago. on the Libyan satellite TV station al- According to the Department Hurra, was murdered in Benghazi of Defense, more than 7,500 on August 11. Three gunmen opened Americans who fought in Ko- fire on his car, fatally wounding him rea remain unaccounted for. with six shots, before fleeing. A few Flooding from monsoon days earlier, he reportedly received rains prevented a visit to the a telephone call threatening his life crash site, but Herman got a Suzanne Scholte of the North Korea if he delivered a speech celebrating rare look at rural areas where Freedom Coalition speaking to Steve Her- Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the other reporters and Western- man, right, and other reporters at Imjingak, end of Ramadan. He died a day after ers have not been able to go. South Korea, May 4. (Photo: R. Kalden/VOA) he gave that speech. He also saw the sights of Pyongyang. Military escorts were always — or almost always — at hand. The highest court in the Mexican As you might expect, a trip to the isolationist dictatorship brings surreal Gulf coast state of Veracruz on Au- moments. Herman said he was praised for his comments in a mausoleum gust 9 threw out the conviction of guest book after viewing the embalmed bodies of Kim Il Sung, the coun- try’s founder, and of Kim Jong Il, the founder’s son and successor as lead- the man charged with killing Regina er, in glass coffins. But Herman did not write in the guest book. Martínez Pérez, an investigative re- “Additionally, I can say that I was not on the typical junket organized by porter for Proceso who was beaten a tour operator or the Foreign Ministry,” Herman told the OPC. “We were and strangled to death in April 2012 under the escort of officers from the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean inside her home. The court said tor- People’s Army the entire time with a senior colonel (between a full-bird ture was used to coerce a confession colonel and a one-star general) as our top minder. The only really scary by Jorge Hernández Silva and that moment I had was in a subway station when I turned around and could find prosecutors had no other evidence none of my minders or anyone else in the delegation. I didn’t know whether against him. The OPC’s Freedom of they had gotten back on a train or exited the station. After a few moments the Press Committee wrote President of near panic, with my still and video cameras at my side, I headed up the Enrique Peña Nieto last December escalator and decided I’d turn myself in to the first person in uniform who and cited profound questions about looked at me suspiciously (so much for my fantasies of clandestine report- the confession and other elements of ing). the case. Authorities said the motive “I knew that I was already under scrutiny from the KPA officers who was robbery. Journalism advocates, were convinced I spoke fluent Korean and was hiding it (I do not and was who urge that the case be solved, not) and that I was likely the intelligence minder for our group of Ameri- believe the murder was tied to Mar- cans. Much to my relief when I exited the station I found the KPA officers tínez’s work. Nine news profession- and our delegation patiently waiting for me to appear and gazing at Pyong- als have been slain in Veracruz since yang’s Arch of Triumph.” the beginning of 2011. The North Korea trip ended Herman’s stint in Seoul and he is now based in Bangkok as VOA’s Southeast Asia bureau chief. Prior to going Press advocates hailed the Au- to Seoul in 2010, he spent more than three years as VOA’s South Asia bu- gust convictions for murders of two reau chief in . journalists. João Francisco dos San- Herman was elected for five consecutive years from 1998 to 2002 as tos was sentenced in Brazil to 27 chairman of The Foreign Press in Japan after completing a one-year term years in prison for the 2010 murder as president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, where he re- of Francisco Gomes de Medeiros, mains a life member. In 2012, he served as president of the Seoul Foreign a radio journalist and blogger. In Correspondents’ Club in 2012.

OPC Bulletin • April 2012 • Page 8 Turkey, two men were sentenced for lice informant. Police said both men Samantha Power, who was sworn the 2009 murder the murder of Ci- had been beaten and shot. López had in on August 2, seemed destined han Hayirsevener, the publisher been threatened in the past in con- for a storied career in journalism of Güney Marmara’da Yasam, a nection with his work. based on her freelance work cover- newspaper in the northwestern city of ing the Balkan conflict from 1993 to Bandirma. Hayirsevener was gunned Two weeks after Honduran radio 1996 for U.S. News & World Report, down while investigating corruption journalist Aníbal Barrow was kid- The Boston Globe, The Economist, involving the municipal government napped from his car, his body was The New Republic and others. OPC and members of an influential local found August 9 on the bank of a la- member Roger Cohen, a columnist family, the Kuruoglus. An Istanbul goon near the city of San Pedro Sula. for The New York Times, told New court sentenced the hitman, Serkan The body, burned and dismembered, York magazine about a night in Sa- Erakkus, to life imprisonment and was identified by forensic tests. Bar- rajevo when he had passed out in a Ihsan Kuruoglu to 17 years in prison row was traveling with his daughter- street after losing a vodka-drinking for ordering the killing. in-law, grandson, and driver when contest to a Russian. Power carried gunmen took control of the car; the him back to the Holiday Inn. She Three Filipino journalists were other passengers were freed. The won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2002 murdered within 48 hours. On July family said they did not receive any book A Problem from Hell: America 30, gunmen on a motorcycle shot and calls seeking a ransom, and the Age of Genocide. killed Bonifacio Loreto Jr., the for- mer publisher of the defunct Aksyon A few days after the anniversary , the inter- Ngayon newspaper, and Richard of the July 9, 2004 assassination of national news channel financed by Kho, its former executive editor, Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes the emir of , debuted August outside a store in Quezon City on Russia, the U.S. Department of State 20 with high-profile talent on the the island of Luzon. Two days later, issued a statement in memory of air and behind the scenes. Ehab Al a gunman in General Santos City en- Shihabi, Al Jazeera’s executive di- tered the home of Mario Sy, a free- rector for international operations, lance photographer who regularly oversaw the creation of the channel contributed to the local Sapol News and will remain as interim chief ex- Bulletin, and shot Sy dead in front of ecutive. Its headquarters is in New his wife and daughter. The publisher York. Kate O’Brian, who had been of Sapol said the murder could have an ABC News senior vice presi- been related to a photo report on lo- dent, was appointed president by cal drug trafficking earlier this year. President Obama listens as Saman- Al Shihabi in July, after hundreds tha Power speaks after he nominated of positions were already filled. At Jesús Nadin Gómez García, her as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. that time, he filled other top posts: manager of Radio Guadalajara, died former OPC board member Marcy July 29 after being shot twice in the Klebnikov and Natalya Estemirova, McGinnis, who worked at CBS face as he entered the radio station in a Russian journalist and human rights News for three decades, was named the city of Buga, Colombia. Just be- activist murdered in July 2009. Their senior vice-president of newsgather- fore his murder, Gómez made a sub- killers have never been brought to ing; CNN veteran David Doss be- stantial withdrawal at a bank, which justice. “The supports came senior vice president for news has led local authorities to suspect the efforts of brave journalists and programming; and Shannon High- robbery was the motive. Police, human rights defenders around the Bassalik, formerly of CNN and however, said they will investigate world who expose corruption and MSNBC, was named senior vice to see if the killing could have been human rights abuses,” the statement president for documentaries and pro- related to journalism. read. “We urge the Russian Govern- grams. Familiar names hired from The body of a Mexican crime ment to protect journalists and hu- rival networks include John Seigen- beat reporter Alberto López Bello man rights defenders, in accordance thaler from NBC; was found July 18 with the international agreements to from MSNBC; Sheila MacVicar, in the southern city which Russia is a party.” formerly of CBS News, and Joie of Oaxaca along Chen and Soledad O’Brien from with another victim, UPDATES CNN. OPC Board member Azmat who was identified NEW YORK: The U.S. now has Khan is senior digital producer in news reports as Alberto López had a former war correspondent as and reporter for , an undercover po- Bello ambassador to the United Nations. (Continued on Page 10)

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 9 (Continued From Page 9) injured decades ago as a high school The agreement was seen as a way for a documentary show. Sana Bég, an football player. He said he wanted to NBC to bolster international reports OPC member and intern, works as a explain why he was away so no one at a time when American TV news news producer. would suspect he was getting a face- networks continue to cut back on lift. He said it was the third surgery overseas bureaus. Allan Dodds Frank, a former on his knee. OPC president and founder of the : News that a photo- Club’s Global Parachute website, Ending a span that began with the journalist on assignment was at- succeeds Myron Kandel as presi- 1987 launch at Condé Nast Traveler, tacked and gang-raped here on Au- dent of The Society of Silurians in former OPC Board member Klara gust 23 triggered protests in several September. Frank’s father, the late Glowczewska is leaving Condé Nast Indian cities and comparisons with Morton Frank, publisher of the on September 3. She became execu- a similar fatal assault in New Delhi supplement Family Weekly, served tive editor in 1992 and was named in December. The victim, 22, was as Silurians president from 1987 to editor-in-chief in 2005. She is being attacked in a derelict textile mill. A 1988. Frank, who is currently work- replaced by Pilar Guzmán, who has male colleague who had gone with ing as a freelancer for national web- been vice president and editor-in- her to carry her cameras was tied up. sites, started work at The Anchorage chief of Martha Stewart Living since Within a few days, police had arrest- Daily News and went on to work for 2011. The company provided no in- ed five men. The Washington Star, Forbes, ABC formation for Glowczewska’s future News and Bloomberg. plans in the media release. PARIS: OPC’s reciprocal re- lationship with the Press Club de Calvin Sims, an OPC member TORONTO: Chrystia Free- France in Paris through the Euro- and former New York Times corre- land, a former OPC board member pean Federation of Press Clubs and spondent, has been appointed presi- who has held several senior positions the International Association of dent and chief executive officer of at Thomson Reuters, astonished the Press Clubs, entitles OPC members International House, the New York industry with her July announce- to a 15% discount at the Hotel Pull- non-profit program and residence ment that she was leaving journalism man Montparnasse located at 19 rue center that promotes cross-cultural to run for parliament as a member Commandant Rene Mouchotte. It is understanding and peace while pre- of Canada’s Liberal Party. She said an upscale, modern business hotel paring leaders for the global commu- she was acting on her convictions in the 14th Arrondissement. Reser- nity. Since 2007, Sims had served as and belief that social and political vations can only be made through a program officer for the Ford Foun- institutions have Stephanie Chezeaux at the press club dation, where he focused on the de- not kept up with in Paris: [email protected] velopment of a free and responsible profound changes worldwide press. As a foreign corre- in the economy. PEOPLE REMEMBERED spondent, Sims was based in Buenos Her resignation as John Palmer, a longtime NBC Aires, Tokyo, Seoul and Jakarta. managing direc- News correspondent, died August 3 tor and editor for in Washington at age 77. The cause was pulmonary fibrosis. Palmer was In an op-ed published in The New consumer news Chrystia Freeland York Times on August 12, Minky at Reuters even based in Beirut in the 1970s and he Worden, an Associate OPC Board surprised colleagues. She is also a covered the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, member, confronted leadership of prolific author, including 2012’s Plu- the war in Cyprus and the civil war the International Olympic Com- tocrats: The Rise of the New Global in Angola. He was later a correspon- mittee for condoning human rights Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone dent in Paris and at the White House. abuses in host countries. Worden is Else. He met his wife, director of global initiatives at Hu- Nancy, a Nightly man Rights Watch and edited Chi- BOSTON: GobalPost, which News producer, at na’s Great Leap: The Beijing Games was co-founded by OPC member NBC’s Washing- and Olympian Human Rights. Charles Sennott, announced in July ton news bureau. a partnership that will allow NBC One of his big- It wasn’t a vacation that kept Bri- News to use GlobalPost’s video and gest scoops was an Williams, the NBC Nightly News other international coverage across breaking the news anchor and managing editor, off the digital platforms such as NBCNews. of the Carter ad- air in August. He took a leave to re- com and .com, as well as ministration’s failed 1980 attempt to cover from surgery to replace a knee supplement NBC’s on-air coverage. (Continued on Page 11)

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 10 (Continued From Page 10) first resident correspondent, pen- rescue the American hostages being ning her “Paris à Table” column. She held in Iran. He became news anchor also wrote regularly for the Interna- of Today in the 1980s. He left NBC tional Herald Tribune, detailing food for other ventures in 1990 only to encounters around the world. She return in 1994 as a Washington cor- published several books for Gour- respondent. After retiring from NBC met: Rome at Table, Paris at Table in 2002, he continued to work in and Adorable Zucchini. In 2005, journalism, including hosting roles Ruth Reichl, who was then editor of on Retirement Living TV, a network Gourmet, wrote about Barry, one of dedicated to seniors. the principal contributors to Remem- brance of Things Paris: Sixty Years Naomi Barry, an OPC member of Writing From Gourmet. “Read- since 1964, died May 14. She was 95 ing fifty-year-old restaurant reviews and a long-time Paris resident who would not normally be much fun; it lived on the Quai d’Orsay. Consid- takes a writer of extraordinary abili- little time machines that not only al- ered the doyenne of Gourmet corre- ties to make you care about meals low you to taste the food she is eat- spondents, she savored life and liked that you will never be able to eat,” ing, but somehow transport you back to describe herself and her friends as Reichl wrote. “Her reviews are like to a city that no longer exists.” “great broads” — charming, sassy, intelligent women of un certain age. An excerpt of Barry’s writing from FootArts.com, October 2010: Her apartment, which overlooked L’Ami Jean and L’Atelier head the New Wave in Paris restaurants that the Seine and a bright neon sign is edging out the branche (trendy) establishments, where the “with it” announcing “Bateaux Mouches,” crowd is greeted with a kiss on each cheek and the rest of us are snubbed was filled with original and valu- at the door. A remarkably noticeable revival in old-fashioned “welcome” able art, first editions of great books with no ambitions of bistro chic is bringing in brisk business. Accueil à la in French and English and ephem- française once had been a model for the profession abroad as well as at era appropriate to one who had left Westchester County, New York, home. It was neither obsequious nor overbearing but sufficiently hospi- in the 1950s for a rich life in Paris. table that folk cherished the memory of little French restaurants like old Barry had a long and enviable career love letters. Then the art of the greeting slipped. The apologists blamed it with Gourmet magazine and was its on a change of society.

(Continued From Page 12) countries, including heroic writers, Hassiba Street will not allow us to doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists, give up.” N WRITING THE BOOK activists and, of course, journalists. Women, a target of fundamen- I Your Fatwa Does Not Apply She writes about their battles for tol- talists, are among the leaders in the Here: Untold Stories from the Fight erance, equality and freedom. fight. After being arrested for pro- Against Muslim Fundamentalism, One story is about how testing the 2009 flogging of jour- [Norton, August] Kari- Algerian journalists could nalist Lubna Hussein for wearing ma Bennoune said she not be stopped even when slacks in public, members of the wanted to present the di- Tahar Djaout Press House, Sudanese Women Empowerment for versity among people of the headquarters of Al- Peace were asked to promise never Muslim heritage and the gerian journalism, was to do it again. They refused. One wide range of relation- decimated by a fundamen- protestor was older and had known ships to Islam. She writes talist car bomb in 1996, life before fundamentalist restric- about people who use in- killing 18 and wound- tions were imposed. She was also telligence, creativity and ing more than 50. Omar steadfastness to resist reli- Belhouchet, editor of El heavyset and when soldiers who gious extremism. Watan, and his staff pro- threw other protesters into a truck Bennoune, a human duced the next day’s paper could not lift her, she was told to go rights lawyer, is a professor at the in the rubble. Bennoune quotes jour- home. “Outraged,” Bennoune writes, University of at Davis. nalist Ghania Oukazi who wrote “she hired a taxi to follow the other In researching the book, she inter- in that paper: “The shredded bodies arrested women to jail.” viewed almost 300 people in 26 of our colleagues and passersby in — by Susan Kille

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 11 the letters were printed by the Lib- erator, William Lloyd Garrison’s New Books abolitionist newspaper, and then got NORTH AMERICA REDERICK DOUGLASS IS the attention of Horace Greeley’s F known as an abolitionist and black New-York Tribune. After returning to leader but he was also a foreign cor- New York, Douglass started his own respondent. Despite a vast output of abolitionist newspaper, The North reporting by black journalists over Star. almost two centuries, until the mod- Black publications began to grow ern era African American foreign after Reconstruction to serve an au- correspondents had little acknowl- dience that the mainstream media edgement in media histories beyond ignored or, worse, portrayed through an occasional asterisk. Jinx Coleman Broussard racial stereotypes. Broussard gives Jinx Coleman Broussard, who Jordan, an African American war insight into correspondents who in teaches media history and public correspondent for the Norfolk Jour- many ways upheld journalism’s tra- relations in the Manship School of nal and Guide. She had not. Her re- dition of objectivity but with a civil Mass Communication at Louisiana search on Jordan led to other black rights perspective to give visibility to State University, has filled that gap journalists who reported from all the marginalized, spur social reform in history with African American over the world. and eliminate oppression. Foreign Correspondents: A History Beginning in the mid-1800s with Reporters from the modern era [Louisiana State University Press, Douglass and Mary Ann Shadd featured in the book include William June]. She writes that the book be- Cary — the first black woman to Worthy Jr., who after a 1953 report- gan with a question from a col- edit a North American newspaper ing trip to Cuba, gained the right for league, John Maxwell Hamilton, — and continuing into the pres- journalists to report from anywhere who is an OPC member, the Hopkins ent, Broussard highlights individu- in the world without regard to U.S. P. Breazeale Professor at the Man- als and publications that brought a State Department regulations; How- ship School and a senior scholar at black viewpoint to international re- ard French, a Columbia University the Woodrow Wilson International porting. For example, when Doug- journalism professor and former se- Center for Scholars in Washington lass, went to Britain in 1845 he did nior foreign correspondent for The D.C. Hamilton asked Broussard if it to escape slavery and to publicize New York Times; and Leon Dash, a she had ever heard of John “Rover” the treatment of blacks in America, professor at the University of Illinois but he also became the first African who reported in the 1970s and 1980s American correspondent. Douglass from Africa for The Washington sent letters home about the reaction Post. Calvin Sims, an OPC member to his speaking tour and his book, and former New York Times reporter, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, as is among others mentioned as media he compared racial attitudes in the staffs became more diverse. United States and abroad. Many of (Continued on Page 11) Taiwan Lecture: Can Taiwan’s Overseas Press Club of America democratization 40 West 45 Street New York, NY 10036 USA success be workable in mainland China?

September 11 Taipei Economic and Cultural Office 1 East 42nd Street New York 6 p.m.

OPC Bulletin • September 2013 • Page 12