THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • October 2015 Panelists Put a Human Face on the Greek Debt Crisis EVENT RECAP allowed to withdraw 60 eu- ros a day from banks, and By Chad Bouchard were panicked that the gov- Greece hovered on the brink of ernment might seize their chaos this summer as the country seemed likely to default on its inter- funds as had happened in national loans and banks began to Cypress in March 2013. close. She remembered a fam- Amid prolonged bailout negotia- ily that had spent thou- tions, Eurozone meetings and end- sands of euros to tutor less economic minutia, reporters their son for college exams covering the crisis strived to human- was devastated to find that ize its impact. they could not send him to Chad Bouchard On Oct. 7, the OPC and the school because they lacked Clockwise from upper left: Dody Tsiantar, CUNY Graduate School of Journal- the funds to pay for his liv- Marcus Mabry, Liz Alderman and Jack Ewing. ism hosted a forum with three vet- ing expenses. joined the panel via Skype from eran reporters to discuss how to pull “It’s heartbreaking to see peo- Paris, recalled reporting on growing compelling narratives out of this ple’s dreams dashed like that,” she child hunger in schools due to bud- knotty story. said. “Through no fault of their get cutbacks. Panelists described shocking own.” “This story made me realize the conditions, with one in two Greeks Liz Alderman, the chief Euro- extent to which austerity and the under 24-years-old unemployed, pean business correspondent for the economic downturn was hitting the and close to half of all bank loans in International New York Times who the country in default. (Continued on Page 5) Dody Tsiantar, a freelance jour- nalist who has been teaching journal- Author to Discuss Black Heroes of WWII ism at CUNY since 2006, said raw they faced racism and violence. From emotion sometimes overwhelmed EVENT PREVIEW: Nov. 4 there, they traveled across the Atlantic her when talking to people affected By Patricia Kranz to Britain, where they were welcomed by the crisis. The OPC, the New York Associa- like movie stars and embraced by peo- She said in July, people were tion of Black Journalists and the For- ple who had never seen people of col- “numb with fear” as they were only eign Press Association will host an or. This African- evening with author Linda Hervieux abroad, Hervieux argues, helped plant Inside. . . the seeds of the civil rights movement Preview: Google News Lab Explained...2 on her book Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at in post-war America. Recap: Emmy Winners...... 2 The moderator is Mark Whita- Home and at War. Her book tells the New for Members: OPC Press ID’s....3 ker, former managing editor of CNN story of the the 320th Barrage Balloon Recap: Protecting Freelancers...... 3 Worldwide and a reporter and editor at Battalion, the only unit of African- Recap: Wu’er Kaixi...... 4 Newsweek, where he rose to become American combat soldiers to land on the first African-American leader of a Recap: China Shocks...... 4 D-Day. Scholar Updade: Covering Greece..5 national newsweekly. Hervieux, a freelance journalist The program will get underway at People Column...... 6-8 and photographer based in Paris, fol- 6:30 p.m. Press Freedom Update...... 9-10 lows the men from their hometowns in To RSVP, please call the OPC at Q&A: Rod Nordland...... 11 segregated Jim Crow America to their 212-626-9220 or send an email to New Books...... 12 training camp in Tennessee, where [email protected]. Sieberg to Explain Google News Lab Emmy Winners Discuss ‘Firestone’ EVENT PREVIEW: Nov. 10 EVENT RECAP

By Patricia Kranz By Chad Bouchard OPC Governor Daniel Sieberg will discuss Google How do you turn 6 years of research and 44 pounds of News Lab and the project’s collaboration with journalists documents into an Emmy-winning documentary? and entrepreneurs to “build the future of media.” On Thursday, Oct. 1, the OPC hosted a panel with Google has been ag- Firestone and the Warlord filmmakers Jonathan Jones gressively reaching out and Marcela Gaviria. Attendees watched clips from the to newsrooms and me- film and heard behind-the-scenes insights on how they dia organizations since spun this investigation into a gripping narrative. News Lab launched in The film, aired on Frontline and produced by Gaviria’s company, Rain Media, won Emmys for Outstanding In- June this year. The com- vestigative Journalism – Long Form, and for Outstanding pany says it has already Research. trained 13,000 journal- Daniel Sieberg This year the film also won a citation for the OPC’s ists in 34 countries. Edward R. Murrow Award, and won the Robert F. Ken- Recent projects include helping to nedy Journalism Award in the new media category and an create a data visualization of “global warming” searches Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. and hosting hackathons with the Center for Investigative Jones first began investigating the American tire com- Reporting. pany Firestone and its activities in war-torn Liberia in Sieberg, who is the Head of Media Outreach at (Continued on Page 5) Google, will describe News Lab’s newsroom training and education projects, how they oversee Google Trends data, how to use tools for election coverage, and programs and partnerships with organizations like CIR, Hacks/Hackers, Matter and others. He’ll also discuss Google’s interest in fostering new ways of storytelling through platforms like VR and YouTube 360. The evening begins with a reception at Club Quarters at 6:00 p.m., and the presentation will start at 6:30 p.m. Chad Bouchard To RSVP, call 212-626-9220 or send an email to Left to right: Martin Smith, Marcela Gaviria [email protected]. and Jonathan Jones OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA • BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT ACTIVE BOARD Scott Gilmore Paul Moakley ASSOCIATE BOARD PAST PRESIDENTS Marcus Mabry Jacqueline Albert- International Columnist Deputy Director ­MEMBERS EX-OFFICIO Editor at large Simon Maclean’s Magazine Photography and Brian I. Byrd Michael Serrill U.S. Bureau Chief Visual Enterprise Time magazine Program Officer David A. Andelman Politique Internationale Peter S. Goodman NYS Health John Corporon Editor-in-Chief FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Hannah Allam Robert Nickelsberg Foundation Allan Dodds Frank Calvin Sims International Freelance Alexis Gelber Foreign Affairs Business Times President and CEO Correspondent Photojournalist Bill Collins William J. Holstein Director, Public & Marshall Loeb International House McClatchy Mary Rajkumar Newspapers Charles Graeber Business Affairs Larry Martz Freelance Journalist International Enterprise SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Editor Ford Motor Company Roy Rowan Deborah Amos and Author The Associated Press Larry Smith Abigail Pesta Correspondent Freelance Journalist Emma Daly Richard B. Stolley NPR Steve Herman Lara Setrakian Communications Bureau Chief Co-Founder & CEO Director Molly Bingham Southest Asia News Deeply EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Human Rights Watch Patricia Kranz Pancho Bernasconi Freelance Journalist Voice of America Vice President/News Martin Smith Rukmini Callimachi President Daniel Sieberg OFFICE MANAGER Getty Images Anjali Kamat Rain Media Foreign Correspondent Global Head Boots R. Duque Correspondent Fault Lines of Media Outreach TREASURER The New York Times Liam Stack Al-Jazeera Breaking News Google EDITOR Tim Ferguson Chad Bouchard Anupreeta Das Reporter Editor Azmat Khan The New York Times Minky Worden Forbes Asia Reporter Wall Street Journal Investigative Reporter Director of Global Charles Wallace Initiatives OPC BuzzFeed News Financial Writer SECRETARY Chris Dickey Human Rights Watch ISSN-0738-7202 Deidre Depke Foreign Editor Dan Klaidman Vivienne Walt ­Copyright © 2015 Journalist and The Daily Beast, Deputy Editor Correspondent Over­seas Press Club Author Paris Yahoo News Time and Fortune of America 40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 2 OPC Offers Press ID Cards For Working Journalists By Charles Graeber point throughout the year, and have it shipped to their As a young freelancer bumming around the world, I location. quickly discovered the power of a piece of paper with a Option Two: A government or press-pass style Over- seal on it to get access, cross checkpoints, or sometimes seas Press Club ID that can be hung around the neck. even cross borders. I recall how embassy staff in Riga This ID is also affixed with holograms for extra security. would reproduce “official” visa stamps using the wet These IDs must be custom printed and thus will be avail- edge of a sliced potato. able to members only in batch orders (50 or more, for It wasn’t just a matter of access, but one of safety too. $50 each). As an identified member of the press, I was less vulner- able. In this increasingly freelance world, I’ve found fewer viable means to secure that accreditation. NYC police press passes are near impossible to obtain, and even the larger publications are stingy with business cards. But one affiliation I can prove is my membership in good standing as an active member of the Overseas Press Club. Shouldn’t I be able to show that at a checkpoint somewhere, the word PRESS visible, as I attempt to ex- plain why I need to rush into a situation everyone else is fleeing? Or attempt to distinguish myself from tourists, or even soldiers? Now, the OPC board is pleased to be able to offer OPC photo ID card options for our working press mem- bers. Option One: A double-sided hard plastic ID card, similar in size to a credit card. It is durable, bears the Both ID’s have been custom designed specifically owner’s photo and the date of issue, and certifies that the for the OPC by an outside contractor (GVA Designs). bearer represents themselves as an active member of the They can’t be easily copied, and, we believe, will give OPC and active press. All members will have the option the bearer a little added official status at checkpoints and to request such an ID at no extra cost when renewing other access points. membership or joining the OPC; since the cards will be The free wallet cards will be available in mid-No- custom printed on-demand at OPC headquarters, mem- vember. Please email [email protected] if you bers will also have the option to request a card at any want to order one, along with a passport-style photo in a high-resolution jpeg. If you are interested in the badge IDs, call the OPC at 212 626-9220 by Dec. 15. We will take credit card information for the $50 cost, but will not charge your credit card until the requisite 50 people sign up. High- resolution jpeg photos should be emailed immediately to [email protected]. Protecting Reporters Who Run Toward Danger representing reporters and media standards, including the AP, Reuters, EVENT RECAP non-profits gathered at the -Colum Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse, By Michael S. Serrill bia Graduate School of Journalism GlobalPost, CBS, NBC, ABC and Freelancers, you have our attention. to review what has become a world- CNN. The meeting was organized The risks facing journalists cov- wide push to establish protocols by the London-based Rory Peck ering conflict, crime and corruption for reporting from conflict zones. Trust, which represents freelance re- around the world have never been The effort goes by the awkward porters and photographers, and Da- greater. And there have never been name Call for Global Safety Prin- vid Rohde of Reuters – who escaped more news organizations focused on ciples and Practices. More than 80 from captivity in Afghanistan. The the quest to keep them safe. On Sept. news and news-related groups have OPC Foundation was a co-sponsor 30 a group of more than 50 people signed on to abide by new reporting (Continued on Page 10)

OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 3 Activist Blasts White House for Meeting With Xi Jinping EVENT RECAP By Chad Bouchard Chinese dissident Wu’er Kaixi told attendees at an OPC event that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit with President Barack Obama signals support for a brutal re- gime. In terms of human rights, brutality and oppression, he said, China is at its lowest point since Mao Zedong’s rule during the Cultural Revolution. “This lending of legitimacy from the United States to Xi Jinping is a very wrong message,” he said. “The Chinese government is at war with its own people now.” Chad Bouchard Wu’er made his comments at Club Quarters on Barbara Demick and Wu’er Kaixi Sept. 24, on the eve of Xi’s visit with President Barack that China can be changed. But we need to know that it’s Obama, during at an OPC discussion moderated by Bar- the system itself that put Xi Jinping there,” he said. “So bara Demick, author and former Beijing bureau chief of his first priority is to protect the integrity, the stronghold the . of the power of the Chinese Communist Party. So he has Wu’er was a student leader in the Beijing protests to do that. And by doing that he needs to oppress dissent of 1989, after which he was forced into exile. An ethnic in China. He needs to be a Communist tyrant.” Uighur who has long campaigned against China’s hu- Wu’er, who now lives in Taiwan, said Taiwan should man right abuses, he has remained active in politics and amend its Constitution to officially recognize the Peo- is a candidate in Taiwan’s 2016 parliamentary elections. ple’s Republic of China, breaking the so-called “one Demick asked Wu’er about Western optimism about China” policy. Taiwan’s government and mainland Chi- reform in China, including American journalists’ initial na both claim to be the sole government of China. hope that Xi would bring democratic change when he He also called on the U.S. to link human rights to was appointed in 2012. trade deals and stop enforcing the standoff between Tai- “It’s wishful thinking. We have such a strong wish wan and mainland China. China’s Shockwaves Are Reaching Distant Shores EVENT RECAP Gady Epstein, who recently re- finite amount of goods, why isn’t in- turned to New York after more than flation going up?” she said. “Because By Chad Bouchard China’s economy seems to be a decade in Beijing for The Econo- overcapacity is so bad, because there weathering some of the most turbu- mist and Forbes magazines as well is so much slack, because factories lent waters in recent memory. as The Baltimore Sun, said rougher producing at a loss and selling stuff Amid aggressive moves to halt waters for China are likely ahead, overseas because no one in China is plunging stocks, the devaluing of and reverberations will reach farther buying it - that is overwhelming this its currency, hundreds of billions of than before. insane increase in money.” dollars in capital outflows and slow- “When China stumbles, the rest Elizabeth Economy, C.V. Starr ing growth, many observers wonder of the world feels it, and the rest of senior fellow and director of Asia if China has reached a pivotal cross- the world actually even knows about Studies at the Council on Foreign roads. it,” he said. Relations, said China’s actions fol- On Sept. 10, the OPC hosted a Gwynn Guilford, a reporter and lowing the stock market crash reflect forum to discuss recent develop- editor for Quartz who spent six years core shortcomings, such as a lack ments with a panel of experts on in China, including three research- of transparency, accountability and China. During the panel, titled “Chi- ing Chinese companies and macro- rule of law. na Shocks: How Serious? What Do They Mean?” moderator William economic developments for hedge “What did the Chinese do? They J. Holstein asked whether recent funds, said China has an oversupply controlled information, arrested events are truly unusual, or if the of money, but its efforts to keep the people, they froze assets, they did world is simply taking more notice Yuan artificially cheap have started everything that you’re not supposed because of an increasingly global- to backfire in recent years. to do in a real market economy,” she ized economy. “With all of this money chasing a said.

OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 4 OPC Scholar Reflects on Covering Greece for the WSJ By Katerina Voutsina In June 2011, I was reporting from Syntagma Square Katerina Voutsina won the OPC Foundation’s 2015 in Athens for a Greek political daily. Police had just fired S&P Award for Economic and Business Reporting and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, and I was chok- has a Foundation fellowship with ing for air with tears streaming from my eyes. Inside in Brussels. She is a student at Tufts University, majoring the parliament lawmakers were voting in European political economy. on austerity measures aimed at averting “So what do you think about Greece? Will they leave the euro area’s first sovereign default. the eurozone?” asked my interviewee on a late June af- Over the summer, I spent hours at ternoon. “I really don’t know,” I replied. “We all ask the the doorstep of European institutions. I same question.” listened to hundreds of different voices I was aware that making small talk in Brussels af- on the future of a country – my country Michael Dames ter having introduced myself as a Greek reporter would Voutsina never be easy. – that was again teetering on the brink We were standing in front of the European Council of bankruptcy. building, where Greece had faced its creditors in count- To small-talk questions, I had no ready answers. In less meetings. Greek banks had been closed, and Euro- Brussels politics, there are no such answers. That’s why pean officials were sending conflicting messages about good reporting is difficult. It demands patience, erudi- the upcoming Greek referendum result. tion and humility. The word “Grexit” has dominated my reporting on Brussels reporting demanded something more: be- the Greek debt crisis since 2010. coming an outsider. I was not.

(‘Greek Debt’ - Continued From Page 1) crisis will be the way that it’s chal- Union factions and the need to pro- lenged the whole idea of Europe,” he tect the union from future crises. Al- lives of average people,” she said. said. “And it raises questions about derman anticipated that the Syrian Jack Ewing, the European eco- what they can do to fix it.” refugee crisis would strain European nomics correspondent for The Inter- Marcus Mabry, president of the solidarity as Syrians land in Greece national New York Times who also OPC and Editor at large at The New and make their way to other coun- joined via Skype from Frankfurt, York Times, moderated the panel. He tries. Tsiantar said while media cov- said the crisis brought to light how asked where the panelists saw the erage would likely diminish, condi- little unity there is among European story going next. tions would continue to worsen as nations. Ewing said the economic story Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras puts “It’s not the single fabric that would shift to long-term debt relief austerity measures into place. “I people wanted it to be. Arguably for Greece, and more broadly about don’t think it’s over by any means,” the longest term effect of the whole tensions between anti-European she said.

(‘Firestone’ - Continued From Page 2) “It was incredible to me that it was the story of ex- ecutives from Arkon, Ohio, stuck in a rubber plantation 2007. Two years later, he wrote an essay about his find- in Africa in the middle of a civil war, with an army of ings for the OPC Foundation’s I.F. Stone scholarship, child soldiers and a lunatic called Charles Taylor - and of which he won. course you’ve got the makings of a brilliant narrative,” With help from a UC Berkeley Fellowship, he began Gaviria said. to dig. He made a Freedom of Information Act request in February 2009 for cables and documents about Fires- OPC Board of Governors member Martin Smith mod- tone’s activities during the civil war. Jones also conducted erated. He is a producer at Frontline, a founder of Rain more than 100 oral history interviews with current and Media, and is married to Gaviria. He asked what the com- former Firestone employees in Liberia. pany’s reaction was to the film. The documents, which included company cables and “I feel that one of the ways we had an impact was that the pages of a manager’s journal, arrived a year later. they did have to come forward and tell their side of the Among those documents were what Gaviria called “three story, which was what the Liberians had been asking for,” smoking guns.” Jones said, noting that Liberia had been asking for Fires- Jones said the story started to gel when he stumbled tone to clarify its role since the early 90s. on an insurance case in Ohio involving Firestone’s claims Firestone responded to the film in a statement that is for losses as a result of the war. They included a formal available on the Frontline website. agreement between Firestone and Charles Taylor, who at The project included a 20,000-word print piece pub- the time was the rebel leader. lished on ProPublica’s site.

OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 5 PEOPLE... By Trish Anderton

OPC SCHOLARS his first New York Times story with ment, specifically the discrepancies 2015 Emanuel R. Freedman the Associated Press. He wrote that persist between the quality of scholarship winner Ben Taub has about American companies fracking care and resources available at pub- another piece in The New Yorker. in Thailand. lic and private facilities. A freelance “Whom Can You Trust on the Syr- journalist based in Buenos Aires, his ian Border” describes the difficulties Jenny Starrs, winner of the work has been published by AP, the of trying to decipher people’s affilia- 2015 Nathan S. Bienstock Memo- BBC, CNN, The New York Times, tions and stay secure as a reporter on rial Scholarship, completed her Reuters, The Guardian, VICE, Al the Turkish border in 2013. OPC Foundation Jazeera and others. Bernas had an fellowship with OPC fellowship in the AP bureau in After an OPC Foundation fel- the GroundTruth Buenos Aires. lowship with the Associated Press Project – founded in Uganda, J.p. Lawrence, the 2015 by OPC member AWARDS H.L. Stevenson Fel- Charles Sennott – in OPC Second Vice President Abi-

lowship winner, has Washington, D.C. Michael Dames gail Pesta has won a Front Page begun his job as a Her multimedia Starrs Award in the Interview category breaking news re- project shows how from the Newswomen’s Club of porter on the crime the U.S. lags behind much of the New York for “Chelsea Manning: beat for the Albany world in terms of women’s partici- No More Secrets,” co-bylined with Times Union in Al- Michael Dames pation in politics. Starrs starts soon Sara Austin. The Marie Colvin bany, NY. Lawrence as the overnight digital video editor Award for Foreign Correspondence for the Morning Mix at the Washing- went to 2009 Hal Boyle Award win- Beth Dickinson, who won the ton Post, where she’ll provide both ner Farniz Fassihi of the Wall Street 2007 I.F. Stone Scholarship, has standalone videos and video content Journal. been awarded a grant of $6,000 from to embed in articles posted in the the International Women’s Media morning. OPC member Kathy Gannon Foundation for an in-depth writing of the Associated Press is slated to project that challenges traditional Tom Finn, winner of the H.L. receive the Committee to Protect narratives on women’s rights in the Stevenson Award in 2013, is headed Journalists’ Burton Benjamin Me- Persian Gulf. Dickinson is a member to Dohar as the Qatar correspondent morial Award for lifetime achieve- of the global journalist cooperative for Reuters. Most recently a report- ment in November. Gannon was Deca, and is based in the Arabian er for Middle East Eye, Finn will badly injured in a shooting while Peninsula. She also has a new Kin- be writing about Qatar’s dominant covering the 2014 presidential elec- dle Single out called “Godfathers gas sector, tracking its preparations tions in eastern Afghanistan; her and Thieves: How Syria’s Diaspora for the 2022 World Cup and look- reporting partner, AP photographer Crowd-Sourced a Revolution.” ing at Qatar’s stormy relations with Anja Niedringhaus, was killed in the its neighbors rooted in Doha’s alli- attack. “Gannon is widely known 2013 Nathan S. Bienstock Me- ance with the Muslim Brotherhood. as one of the most thoughtful and morial Scholarship winner Jacob Finn was an OPC Foundation fellow dedicated journalists covering the Kushner has the cover story in the in the Reuters bureau in Cairo and region,” said CPJ board chair San- September/October edition of Mo- previously worked with the Yemen dra Mims Rowe, adding that Gan- ment magazine. “Birthright Denied” Times. non’s commitment to journalism is an in-depth look at the Dominican “has transcended personal risk and Republic’s campaign to strip citizen- Congratulations to Frederick tragedy.” In June, Gannon was hon- ship from the children of Haitian im- Bernas, Walter and Betsy Cronkite ored with the James Foley Medal migrants. The story was funded by Scholar in 2013, on being named For Courage in Journalism – a prize Moment’s Daniel Pearl Investigative an International Reporting Project given by Northwestern University’s Journalism Initiative. fellow. He will join 10 other inter- Medill School of Journalism to rec- national journalists for 11 days in ognize “moral, ethical or physical 2015 Walter and Betsy Cronkite October in Ecuador reporting on that courage in the pursuit of a story or Scholar Ted Andersen has landed country’s healthcare and develop- series of stories.”

OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 6 New York Times Paris bureau the lives of the only four doctors in Vice President Ted Smyth has been chief and OPC member Alissa America still providing late-term appointed vice chair and chief of J. Rubin has won the 2015 John abortions. “When staff at global PR behemoth Edel- Chancellor Award for Excellence I Walk” tells the man. PR Week reports that Smyth, in Journalism. The story of indepen- an OPC member, will serve as se- prize, named af- dent filmmaker Ja- nior strategist in the food and bev- ter longtime NBC son DaSilva and his erage and financial sectors, among News anchor John battle with multiple other duties. Before his six years at Chancellor, is pre- sclerosis; it won the (flickr) Awards Peabody McGraw Hill, Smyth worked at HJ sented annually by award for Outstand- Kilmurry Heinz. the Columbia Uni- ing Informational Programming - versity School of Rubin Long Form. New member Kaya Yurieff has Journalism to honor a reporter for joined the new digital team at Worth his or her cumulative accomplish- OPC members and Magazine, where she’s conducting ments. “Both quietly courageous Adam Nossiter, along with fellow interviews, writing for the websites, and fiercely intellectual, Rubin cov- New York Times staffers Kevin Sack, editing and covering events. Worth ers conflict through human stories Pam Belluck and Daniel Berehulak, is a financial and lifestyle magazine of the soldiers, victims and survi- were finalists in the Explanatory Re- founded in 1992 and re-launched by vors of war,” wrote the school in a porting category of this year’s On- Sandow in 2009. statement. “Her work is marked by line News Awards for their reporting a deep understanding of the Middle on Ebola. The Times team won a Hal OPC member Sally Jacobsen is East and its people, from besieged Boyle award` for its Ebola coverage a co-editor of the new interactive e- Yazidis and female Iraqi insurgents, earlier this year. book version of the AP Stylebook. to Afghan women struggling to gain The Associated Press released the their rights.” Rubin, who won the OPC member C.J. Chivers was new edition in September with Ba- 2009 Ed Cunningham award, is back a finalist for the ONA’s Al Neuharth sic Books, which also publishes the reporting from the region after suf- Excellence in Investigative Journal- print version of the vaunted style fering serious injuries in a helicopter ism Award for his New York Times guide. While an interactive version crash in Iraq last year. story, “The Secret Casualties of was already available on the web Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weap- and in apps, “Stylebook fans have OPC governor Martin Smith ons.” Chivers won the OPC’s Best asked for an e-book version for presented an Emmy to his wife, Investigative Reporting award with years,” the organization said in a Marcela Gaviria, at the 36th An- that story earlier this year. press release. With more than 5,000 nual News & Documentary Emmy entries, this year’s edition is also the Awards on Sept. 29. Gavira won for UPDATES biggest ever. Outstanding Research on Frontline’s NEW YORK: OPC member “Firestone and the Warlord,” about and former Bulletin correspondent : The GroundTruth the relationship between the global Susan Kille went home from the Project, launched in 2014 by OPC tire giant and Liberia’s Charles Tay- hospital and happily consumed non- member Charles Sennott, has re- lor. Not to be outdone, Smith took hospital food following her lung ceived $300,000 from the John D. home two statuettes himself: one for transplant surgery, but the road to and Catherine T. MacArthur Foun- Outstanding Coverage of a Current recovery is bumpy. She thanks ev- dation. The grant will provide gen- News Story - Long Form and the eryone for their kind thoughts. eral operating support of $300,000 other for Best Documentary. Both over two years for reporting proj- awards were for his work as a pro- Four Corners Media, co-founded ects on “climate change, youth un- ducer of Frontline’s “United States by OPC member Micah Garen, had employment, global health and the of Secrets,” about mass surveillance a documentary air on Al-Jazeera legacy of the Arab Spring,” Sennott in the post-9/11 era. English in early October. Off the said in a press release. Meanwhile, Rails: A Journey Through Japan Sennott’s previous project, Global- Simon Kilmurry, an OPC mem- travels to big cities and rural back- Post, is being acquired by public ber, won two Emmys for his work waters by train, exploring what the broadcaster WGBH. GlobalPost’s as executive producer on two POV country’s railways reveal about Ja- operations will merge with those of documentaries. “After Tiller” shared pan’s changing society. WGBH’s Public Radio Internation- the Best Documentary award with al group, which produces the radio “United States of Secrets.” It follows Former McGraw Hill Executive (Continued on Page 8)

OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 7 (Continued From Page 7) In between, he worked for United issue of The Believer, McSweeney’s show “The World.” “This new chap- Press international and CBS News literary magazine. “A Common Lan- ter for GlobalPost is exciting and a in New York, London, Moscow, To- guage” tells the story of a military very positive development for all in- kyo and other places. Joseloff has and State Department vet who helps volved,” said Sennott in a statement. also served as a Westport selectman. fellow veterans write their way “It demonstrates PRI and WGBH’s through PTSD. commitment to and investment in in- HOUSTON: A new campaign ternational news in a dramatic way.” has been launched to raise aware- ness of the fate of journalist Austin Atish Saha, winner of this year’s Tice, who has been missing since Madline Dane Ross award, is exhib- August 2012. Tice disappeared iting his photos of the Rana Plaza while preparing to travel from Syr- factory collapse at the EMW Gal- ia to Lebanon. He is believed to be lery in Cambridge. The 2013 disas- held somewhere in the region, and ter in Dhaka, Bangladesh claimed not by ISIS. His family and Report- George Burns (1929-2015) more than 1,100 lives. Saha’s photos ers Without Borders unveiled the are being shown alongside Bryan #FreeAustinTice campaign in Sep- PEOPLE REMEMBERED MacCormack’s pictures of the per- tember. Supporters are encouraged Longtime OPC member George ilous trek migrants make across to take a photo wearing a blindfold, Burns has died at age 86. Burns joined the Sonoran Desert of Mexico and to symbolize what the world would the OPC in 1965 and had just passed Arizona, in an effort to highlight be like without journalists, and post the 50-year mark as a member at the the individual tragedies underlying it with the #FreeAustinTice hashtag. time of his death. He served as trea- large death tolls. Saha has returned Partners in the effort include surer for many years and did extensive to Bangladesh after months of travel & USA TODAY, GlobalPost, Hearst research and writing on the OPC’s his- in the U.S., and hopes to come back Newspapers Group, National Press tory. Having helped lead the organiza- next year. Club, Newseum, The New York tion out of serious financial trouble Times, TalkRadioNews, The Atlan- in the mid-1990s, he is remembered PROVO, Utah: John Hughes tic Media Group, The GroundTruth by many as “the man who saved the retired as a professor of international Project, The Huffington Post, Mc- OPC.” Born in Scranton, Penn., Burns communications at Brigham Young Clatchy Newspapers, and the Wash- began his career as a public informa- University on Sept. 1. An OPC mem- ington Post. tion officer in the U.S. Air Force. After ber, Hughes won the Pulitzer Prize leaving the military, he ran the Pismo for international reporting in 1967 SAN FRANCISCO: Vanity Fair Beach Times in California and then and the OPC prize for best reporting editor and OPC member Graydon tackled communications roles at PAN from abroad in 1970 as a foreign cor- Carter interviewed famed photogra- AM, TWA and Citibank. “He loved respondent for The Christian Science pher Annie Leibovitz onstage at the the travel and the people, but most of Monitor. He was a Nieman fellow at magazine’s New Establishment Sum- all he had fun,” states his obituary. “He Harvard in 1962. Later, as editor of mit in early October. The invitation- was never too busy to help a friend, or the Monitor for nine years, he served only event also featured Mark Zucker- tell a joke, host a dinner party, or meet on the Pulitzer selection board, and as berg, Elon Musk, Lena Dunham, and up in a bar.” His wife, Barbara, who president of the American Society of dozens of other speakers. It promised maintained her husband’s member- Newspaper Editors. His biography, “inventive programming and inspir- ship even while he was suffering with Paper Boy to Pulitzer, was published ing conversations around the ideas Alzheimer’s Disease, has been given by Nebbadoon Press in 2014. and innovations shaping the future.” an Honorary Membership to the OPC. In addition, Carter keeps high-profile To read more about George WESTPORT, Conn.: OPC company in a recent Washington Post Burns’s contribution to the OPC, in- member Gordon Joseloff recently story compiling some of the many cluding a 2013 article from William gave a speech about his journalism people who’ve been called losers by J. Holstein, go to our web page at career to the Y’s Men of Westport Donald Trump. “Losers: A List by www.opcofamerica.org/news/people- Weston, a club for retirees. His talk Donald Trump” also includes Bill remembered-george-burns. was titled “Westport to Westport: A Maher, Seth Meyers, Salon.com and In next month’s Bulletin, we Journalism Journey,” because he got the Huffington Post. will include remembrances from his start reporting for the local news- members who knew Burns. If you paper and is now, at 70, the editor OPC member Kristina Shevory have a story to share, please email: and publisher of WestportNow.com. landed a long piece in the Summer [email protected].

OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 8 PRESS FREEDOM UPDATE... v 2015 is on pace to become the on everyone. Many journalists are Barbara Trionfi welcomed the deci- deadliest year for journalists on re- saying that nowadays, there is no sion but added that “the warning that cord, says the International Press media that is safe.” accompanies SECOM’s resolution Institute. According to the Institute’s is a clear offence against freedom of Death Watch, 61 members of the At least seven journalists cover- information. It represents an ultima- media have been killed this year in ing the refugee crisis on the Hungar- tum seeking to intimidate the mem- connection with their work or due ian border have allegedly been as- bers that form part of Fundamedios to accidents in the field. Another 54 saulted by border police, The Guard- and make their work of monitoring deaths are currently under review. ian reports. Four were detained or violations of press freedom in Ecua- The Institute began tracking journal- questioned. The journalists, who dor more difficult.” ist deaths in 1997, and recorded its were from a variety of countries and highest number, 133, in 2012. “IPI’s organizations, reported being hit Kurdish journalist Massoud figures reveal the alarming extent to with batons, kicked, knocked to the Aqeel has been freed by Islamic which journalists around the world ground, and, in the case of Associ- State after nine months in captivity, are increasingly targeted for their ated Press cameramen Luca Muzi, but the fate of his colleague Farhad reporting,” IPI Executive Director forced to delete footage showing a Hamo is still unclear, Al Jazeera Barbara Trionfi said. “The killing of police dog knocking over a refugee. reports. A freelance reporter, Aqeel a journalist is the most heinous way was released in a prisoner exchange not only of silencing an individual Cyber activists in Thailand are with Kurdish forces. Aqeel and Har- report or the media of a particular protesting what they say is a plan to mo were kidnapped in December country, but also of denying the pub- create a single government gateway 2014 while on assignment in north- lic news and information to which it for internet traffic, according to the eastern Syria for the Rudaw Kurdish has a right.” Bangkok Post. The group says the media network. gateway would cause “immeasur- The Index on Censorship is call- able harm” by giving the govern- One journalist has been arrested ing for nominations for the 2016 ment control over the flow of infor- and a dozen others detained and Freedom of Expression Awards mation in and out of the kingdom. questioned in the latest media crack- to “call attention to some of the down in Azerbaijan, according to world’s bravest journalists, artists, the Institute for War and Peace Re- campaigners and digital activists.” porting. The moves have targeted Winners are honored at a gala cel- former and current employees of ebration in London, and receive Meydan TV, a relative newcomer training and support from the Index to the market that has criticized the on Censorship’s Awards Fellowship Azerbaijani government and its poli- program. Nominations may be made cies. The regional news site Cauca- at awards.indexoncensorship.org. sian Knot reports journalist Shirin Daniel Cima (flickr) Abbasov was sentenced to 30 days China caused surprise and con- Mauricio Alarcón-Salvador, co-director of administrative arrest on unknown sternation around the world in early of free speech watchdog Fundamedios. charges. September by publicly shaming a journalist from the well-regarded Ecuador has abandoned its effort The Freedom of the Press Foun- business magazine Caijing. Reporter to dissolve Fundamedios, the coun- Wang Xiaolu was forced to confess try’s only press freedom organiza- dation has raised more than $160,000 on China Central Television to writ- tion. But the decision came with a for a legal appeal by Wikileaks ing a “sensational” and “irresponsi- warning that the proceedings could source Chelsea Manning. Manning, ble” story on the stock market. Luo be restarted if the government feels formerly known as Private Bradley Changping, a former deputy manag- the group is engaging in political Manning, was sentenced to 35 years ing editor at Caijing, told The New activities. The government launched under the Espionage Act in August York Times that the government the effort on Sept. 5 after Fundame- 2013 for giving Wikileaks more than seems to be growing more repres- dios promoted two blogs critical of three-quarters of a million military sive toward media. “Maybe a few President Rafael Correa’s adminis- and diplomatic documents. She is years ago, the line was higher,” he tration, writes the International Press currently imprisoned at Forth Leav- said. “But now it’s dropping lower Institute. IPI Executive Director enworth, Kansas. OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 9 (Continued From Page 9) a Geo TV news van on Sept. 8, the Akram Raslan. Security forces detained Raslan in Hama in 2012 MURDERS Times of India reports, killing senior after he published cartoons critical ● Colombian radio host Flor satellite engineer Arshad Ali Jafri of the Assad regime. According to Alba Nunez Vargas was murdered and injuring the driver. On Sept. 9, the Center, he died under torture a by a lone gunman on Sept. 10 while a motorcyclist carrying a gun killed journalist Aftab Alam outside his few months later. Michael Cavna of standing outside the door of radio the Washington Post holds out hope home. Alam had worked with Geo station in Pitalito, Huila. According that the reports are false, however. TV in the past. It is not known to The Mirror (UK), Flor, 25, was “Raslan’s cartoons have shined a known for her reporting on people whether the murders were related. light upon the violent and repres- trafficking and corruption. sive darkness of Assad’s govern- ● Reporters without Borders ment,” writes Cavna. “And so today, ● Two journalists have been shot and the Gulf Center for Human in the spirit of that intellectual beam dead in Karachi, Pakistan in a 24- Rights say they have confirmed the of truth, we remember Raslan. And hour period. Gunmen opened fire on death of noted Syrian cartoonist hope.”

(‘Protecting Reporters’ - Continued From Page 3) countries; it was represented at the meeting by Susanna Inkinen, who helps run the Afghan Journalist Safety and Executive Director Jane Reilly provided crucial lo- Committee. gistical support. Attendees came from as far away as Eu- One impediment to global cooperation: no one rope, and included Diane Foley, mother of James Foley, knows exactly how many freelancers are out there, and who was murdered by ISIS in 2014. She now runs the how many of them want or need services. To address this James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. Frank Urrutia was issue, in 2013 the London-based Frontline Club created there representing the family of Steven Sotloff, another murder victim, and their 2Lives Foundation. Marc and the Frontline Freelance Register – “run by freelancers, Deborah Tice, whose son, freelance reporter Austin for freelancers.” FFR has signed up 600 roving Tice, disappeared in Syria in 2012, also made an appear- journalists “to provide members with representation ance. (You will find a compelling story about the Tices’ and a sense of community.” All members must sign a struggles in a recent Texas Monthly.) code of conduct promising to obtain proper training Attendees broke into committees to work on and equipment before entering conflict zones. The strategies for getting freelancers free safety and first group was represented by veteran Middle East reporter aid training, insurance and easier access to security Emma Beals. At the meeting, AFP agreed to attempt a information. Some recent developments: worldwide census of freelancers. ● The International Women’s Media Foundation has One purpose of the census is to create a viable just released an app called Reporta, which reporters can insurance pool. Yet the meeting reinforced one dictum use to check in with editors daily. The Reporta app also from the business world: you can insure anything. It issues alerts if the reporter or one of her or his colleagues turns out that even people who run toward danger can is in potential danger, and includes an SOS button to get insurance – and at a reasonable price. Medical and send a distress message to designated contacts. The app evacuation coverage is available, with limitations, then shuts down to prevent access by kidnappers. from at least two companies: World Nomads and April ● Jorge Luis Sierra, a Mexican investigative reporter Insurance. and Knight International Fellow at the International One reason the participants in the Columbia meeting Center for Journalists, has developed an online tool got together: there are too many competing sets of that maps countries, using a color code, according programs and guidelines. To begin to resolve that issue to the level of violence and the number of attacks on the Committee to Protect Journalists, IMS, Reporters journalists. Sierra developed the tool while he was a reporter in Iraq, and it is now also in use in Mexico, Without Borders, Rory Peck Trust, the OPC and other Panama and Colombia. groups are working to create a single platform that ● Efforts to provide safety training and other freelancers can use to obtain training, insurance and services to journalists have mostly focused on Western security information. The groups will meet periodically reporters who risk forays into war zones. Denmark- to assess progress. based International Media Support concentrates on local reporters, who are often much more threatened by Michael Serrill, former president of the OPC, is now governments and malefactors determined to suppress himself a freelancer after a long career as a foreign the news. In Mexico, Sierra noted, 85 local reporters editor at Time, Business Week and Bloomberg Markets have been murdered since 2005. IMS works in about 25 magazine.

OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 10 Meet the OPC Members: Q&A With Rod Nordland

By Trish Anderton Rod Nordland is an international correspondent at large for The New York Times. He has worked as a re- porter in more than 150 countries, with postings in Bangkok, Beirut, Baghdad, Cairo, Rome, Sarajevo, San Salvador, Islamabad, London, Kabul, and other places. Before coming to the Times in 2009 he was Newsweek’s chief foreign correspondent, based in London. He began his foreign reporting career for his hometown paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, covering the [Far East] and Cen- tral America. Nordland’s honors have included a share of a Pulitzer Prize for news, and he was also a finalist for a Pulitzer in international reporting. He has won two Adam Ferguson

George Polk awards and several Overseas Press Club Rod Nordland reporting in Afghanistan. awards. Hometown: Philadelphia. When traveling, I like to: Sleep, especially if the road, or flight, is rough and there’s nothing to see on the way. Education: BA in journalism, Pennsylvania State Uni- There is nothing better than waking up at the destination versity; Nieman fellowship, Harvard. with all that unpleasantness completely missed. Languages: Bad French, fair Italian, bad Spanish, some Hardest story: Three Mile Island, particularly since I English. had not yet had children and was on stakeout during the First job in journalism: Philadelphia Inquirer, metro re- meltdown. write and general assignment. Journalism heroes: Heywood Broun, Ernie Pyle, Jon Countries reported from: Based in Thailand, El Salva- Krakauer. dor, Lebanon, Italy, Bosnia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brit- ain, Egypt, Cyprus, but all of my postings have been bas- Advice for journalists who want to work overseas: es from which I traveled to other places. Presently based Find a place with a good story and no resident foreign in Kabul, with a second home in London, where my im- journalists, and realize it’s not going to be easy. Don’t go mediate family is. to Syria, though. No one ethical will touch your stuff and Year I joined OPC: I think probably 1985 but not sure. you may lose your head. Certainly back in the 80s somewhere. (January 1985) Dream job: Correspondent at large for The New York What drew me to overseas reporting: The school board Times. Favorite quote: You don’t get lucky unless you beat on the Main Line of Philadelphia. As a reward for take a chance. that thankless assignment, Gene Roberts, then the editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, sent me to cover the death Place you’re most eager to visit: Thimpu, Bhutan and of Pope Paul VI, and then again the death of his successor Shibam, Yemen shortly later, John Paul I. It was both my first foreign as- Most over-the-top assignment: Literally, Mount Everest signment, and first foreign trip, and I was hooked. base camp by helicopter, the year all those climbers died; Major challenge as a journalist: Work/life balance. altitude sickness is no joke.

Best journalism advice received: Again from Gene Country most want to return to: Cambodia. Roberts, re: stories: zig when everyone else zags; re: lo- gistics: always be sure to carry a book and a flask. Twitter handle: @rodnordland Worst experience as a journalist: Losing colleagues Want to add to the OPC’s collection of Q&As with mem- and friends. bers? Please contact [email protected].

OPC Bulletin • October 2015 • Page 11 New Books sonally opposed to slavery, that the else is easy except writing songs.”) And HISTORY Confederacy’s culture and economy Kurt Vonnegut, whose “customary fa- S THE CIVIL WAR ERUPT- were built on coerced black labor. cial expression was one of brooding dis- A ed in the U.S., Great Britain “The frightful evil of the system traction,” Hickey writes, “but now and found itself in an awkward spot: op- is that it debases the whole again, as some egregious posed to slavery, yet dependent on tone of society – for the incongruity took him by Southern cotton to feed its large tex- people talk calmly of hor- surprise, the disheveled face tile industry. Lord Palmerston, the rors which would not be writhed with mirth and was British prime minister, flirted with mentioned in civilized transformed.” the idea of recognizing the Confed- society,” he wrote in one Joan Baez talks about eracy – which could have been disas- secret dispatch. “It is liter- growing up within her trous for the Union. Luckily for both ally no more to kill a slave parents’ concept of Quak- the Northern states and the Brits, they than to shoot a dog.” erism, in which “you re- had Robert Bunch on their side. In an interview with ject pledging yourself to a Bunch was sent to Charleston, the Charleston City Pa- nation-state, and instead, South Carolina as a Brit- per, Dickey said he stum- pledge yourself to all hu- ish consul in 1853. There bled across Bunch while manity.” She demonstrated that princi- he began leading a double doing research for a book ple by criticizing the victorious North life, courting plantation on British explorer Sir Vietnamese regime for human rights owners and pro-slavery Richard Francis Burton. abuses, and was pilloried for it by politicians in public while Dickey decided he didn’t many in the peace movement. Look- privately urging his boss- much like Burton and ing back, she says people “saw these es in London to keep the didn’t want to write a book matters through only one eye, the left South at arm’s length. on him – but found himself eye or the right. … But one should be Our Man in Charleston drawn to Bunch and other as willing to work for a woman in a [Crown Publishers, July], consuls who had played a Siberian labor camp as for someone in the latest book from OPC largely overlooked role in a Chilean torture chamber.” member Christopher the diplomatic maneuver- The first half of the book is de- Dickey, is his story. ings surrounding the war. voted to people and the second to Bunch was disgusted by the “pe- As Dickey himself wrote in The events, including the 1968 Demo- culiar institution” and never missed Daily Beast, “Bunch was not outward- cratic National Convention, the Gulf an opportunity to remind Palmerston, ly heroic” and “his motives could be War, and a wonderful chapter on who was also per- ambiguous.” But his double role, and space exploration before and after his keen insights on the likely course the Challenger disaster. Adventures of the conflict, make for a compelling in the Scribbler Trade is a compel- Upcoming Events tale. ling walk down memory lane for “Dickey has written a book that is anyone who’s paid attention to the OPC Mixer as much suspense and spy adventure news in this half-century; Hickey’s At the Half King as it is a history book,” writes The Car- passionate interest in his subjects 6:30 p.m., Oct. 21 olina Chronicles. “A story as compel- makes it clear that journalism is in ling as this one does not come around fact, for him, the most fun you can Book Night: very often.” have. — By Trish Anderton Forgotten: The Untold MEMOIR Story of D-Day’s Black PC MEMBER NEIL HICK- Heroes, at Home O ey’s memoir, Adventures in the WELCOME TO OUR and at War Scribbler Trade: The Most Fun You NEW MEMBERS 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4 Can Have [iUniverse, February 2015], is packed with fascinating Shreeya Sinha Assistant Editor OPC Governor portraits of the most memorable The New York Times people and events he experienced Active Resident, 29 and under Daniel Sieberg Explains in his long career. Google News Lab There’s a seventy-ish Bob Samuel Steinberger 6:30 p.m., Nov. 10 Dylan ordering a pastrami sand- Columbia School of Journalism wich and a can of beer and talk- Student ing about his craft (“Almost anything

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