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THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • February 2013 Calling All Tchotchkes and New Friends for OPC Party What will this than half way thru EVENT PREVIEW: MARCH 8 year’s Tchotchke Par- the billing cycle. So a by Aimee Vitrak ty feature? It’s up to New Young Member Dust off your Qadaffi carpets, Al- enough raucous cor- will pay $70 for a year banian belt buckles, Barbie burkas respondents to RSVP and a half member- and any other “liberated” items from and bring a potential ship. overseas postings for the OPC’s OPC member. OPC The event will be second Tchotchke Party on Friday, member Yvonne Dun- hosted again by OPC March 8. The evening will have Col. el-Qadaffi carpet cocktails, dim sum and a Foreign leavy and husband Board member Minky Correspondent story night. Joost Schiereck have Worden and Gordon Crovitz at their This event is also a membership generously agreed to donate $30 home located at 55 Liberty Street, recruitment effort. Next year, the toward the $100 memberships for penthouse 30, on March 8 at 7 p.m. OPC celebrates its 75th anniversary; Young members (under 35 years of RSVP is essential. Call the OPC at every member of the international age). New members will also have 212-626-9220 or e-mail boots@op- reporting community should be en- an extended time since we are more cofamerica.org couraged to join an organization that supports press freedom, and journalists, around the world. Panel on the Shia and Sunni Divide The first Tchotchke Party, held in nott, Executive Editor of Global- EVENT PREVIEW: MARCH 13 March 2011, went over so big that it Post, which is launching a multi- was featured as a “Talk of the Town” News events roiling in the Mid- part series on the issue. piece in The New Yorker. Ben Mc- dle East right now from the civil The divide dates back to the death Grath wrote that the party was “an war in Syria to the episodic upris- of the Prophet Muhammad and the élite form of war-zone show-and- ings in Bahrain to a recent spate of division in ideology, religion and tell, which prompted questions from bombings in post-war Iraq all have politics. Muslims were torn between participants like ‘At what point is it a historical theme and an ancient electing a head-of-state or having a looting?’ and ‘Who else has stolen enmity running through them: the family member of Muhammad’s be the ashtray from the Rex Hotel?’ (in Sunni-Shia divide. the successor. A friend of the Islam- To help frame these news stories Saigon).” ic prophet Muhammad was elected and to mark the 10th anniversary of and this caused a split that contin- the war in Iraq, the OPC will hold ues; Sunnis agreed with the deci- a panel discussion that will explore sion to elect a leader, while Shias Inside. . . the history and the modern politics of the Sunni and Shia divide in the recognized Ali ibn Abi Talib, as the Scholars Luncheon Recap...... 3-7 Muslim world. family member of Muhammad’s to “It’s a critical time to deepen be their leader, or as the Shia see it, Reporting Fellowship Launch...... 7 our understanding of the Sunni and Islam’s first Imam and the rightful successor to Muhammad. People...... 8-12 Shia divide and to analyze how con- temporary politics so often fans the Today, 85 percent of Muslims People Remembered...... 12 flames of this division. It’s been a are Sunnis who recognize the deci- truism throughout many centuries, sion to elect a successor. The larg- Hackers Impact Press Freedom....13 but recently there seems to be a dis- est population of the minority Shia Muslims resides in Iran and Iraq Raymer Book Night Recap...... 14-15 tinct uptick in the tensions in Syria, in Bahrain, in Iraq, in Pakistan and while large minority communities New Books...... 16 elsewhere,” said Charles M. Sen- (Continued on Page 2) OPC Panel Discussion on the Shia and Sunni Divide (Continued From Page 1) militant Islam, regional politics, the dent digital media project exploring of Shia also live in Yemen, Bah- war on terror and is currently writ- a new model of storytelling around rain, Syria and Lebanon. While the ing a book about the struggle be- a global crisis. She is a Huffington two streams of Islam share many of tween Saudi Arabia and Iran, titled Post correspondent and previously the same philosophies, rituals and The Quiet War. covered the Middle East from Dubai beliefs, the fundamental point of an for ABC News, Bloomberg Televi- n Charles M. Sennott is the elected or bequeathed leadership re- sion and the International Herald executive editor and co-founder mains, and at times further erodes, Tribune. of GlobalPost, the web-based site the division in religion and politics. for international The OPC has assembled a panel n news. Before Calvin Sims, Program Offi- to help navigate how the history of this new venture, cer, Freedom of Expression Unit of the Sunni-Shia divide informs the Sennott was a the Ford Founda- present-day politics and geography long time foreign tion, will mod- in the Middle East: correspondent erate the panel. for The Boston Prior to joining n Mohamad Bazzi is an assis- Globe serving as the Ford Foun- tant professor of journalism at New Middle East bu- dation in 2007, York University where he teaches Sennott reau chief based Calvin spent two international reporting. At the in Jerusalem decades at The Council on Foreign Relations he is from 1997 to 2001. Sennott is a fre- New York Times an adjunct senior fellow for Middle Sims quent analyst of the Middle East for as a foreign cor- East studies and was their 2008 the BBC, CNN, PBS NewsHour and respondent in Buenos Aires, Tokyo Edward R. Mur- NPR. row Press Fel- and Jakarta. low. Bazzi was n Lara Setra- The event takes place on Wednes- the Middle East kian is a foreign day, March 13. Reception begins at bureau chief at correspondent, 6 p.m. at Club Quarters, 40 West 45 Newsday from co-founder and Street, and the panel discussion will 2003 to 2007. He managing editor begin at 6:30 p.m. To RSVP, call has written ex- of SyriaDeeply. the OPC at 212-626-9220 or e-mail tensively about Bazzi org, an indepen- Setrakian [email protected].

OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA • BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT SECRETARY Deidre Depke Santiago Lyon ASSOCIATE BOARD PAST PRESIDENTS Michael Serrill Jonathan Dahl Executive Editor VP and Director of MEMBERS EX-OFFICIO Assistant Managing Former Editor-in-Chief The Daily Beast Photography Brian Byrd David A. Andelman Editor Smart Money Associated Press Program Officer John Corporon Bloomberg Markets Adam B. Ellick NYS Health Allan Dodds Frank ACTIVE BOARD *Video and Print Marcus Mabry Foundation Alexis Gelber FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Jacqueline Albert- Journalist Editor at Large William J. Holstein Tim Ferguson Simon The New York Times International Herald Emma Daly Marshall Loeb Editor U.S. Bureau Chief * on leave attending Tribune Communications Larry Martz Forbes Asia Politique Internationale Harvard Kennedy School Director Roy Rowan John Martin Human Rights Watch Leonard Saffir SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Amar C. Bakshi Arlene Getz Writer/Editor Larry Smith Abigail Pesta JD/MBA student Editor-in-Charge, Media Sarah Lubman Richard B. Stolley Freelance Journalist Yale University Thomson Reuters Romesh Ratnesar Partner Deputy Editor Brunswick Group EXECUTIVE THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Rebecca Azmat Khan Bloomberg DIRECTOR Toni Reinhold Blumenstein Digital Producer Businessweek Minky Worden Sonya K. Fry Editor in Charge, Page One Editor PBS - Frontline Director of Global New York Desk The Wall Street Journal Tom Squitieri Initiatives EDITOR Reuters Evelyn Leopold Freelance Journalist Human Rights Watch Aimee Vitrak Paul Brandus Independent Journalist TREASURER West Wing Report United Nations Seymour Topping Abi Wright OPC Dorinda Elliott Emeritus Director ISSN-0738-7202 Global Affairs Editor Howard Chua-Eoan Daphna Linzer Professor of Alfred I. duPont – Copyright © 2002 Conde Nast Traveler News Director Senior Reporter International Columbia University Overseas Press Club of Time Pro Publica Journalism Awards America Columbia University 40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 2 Eager for a Chance, Scholars Seize Spotlight at Luncheon

EVENT RECAP: FEBRUARY 22 by Aimee Vitrak The Yale Club Ballroom was filled to capacity for the OPC Foundation Scholarship Luncheon on February 22. This year’s event launched the Nathan S. Bienstock Memorial Scholarship and the GroundTruth Fellow- ship. OPC Foundation board member and Global Post co-founder Charles M. Sennott introduced the $10,000

GroundTruth Fellowship for freelance correspondents Michael Dames who have more than three years of experience and pro- pose a reporting project in the Middle East (see page 7). David Rohde gave the keynote address. The Foundation awarded a combination of scholar- “ground truth,” hitting the same theme as the luncheon’s ships and funded internships to 14 graduate and under- beginning announcement of the GroundTruth Fellow- graduate students from a wide range of academic insti- ship. tutions and from every region of the country. “You will have a front row seat to history,” Rohde The David R. Schweisberg Memorial Scholarship said. “There will be moments of despair and setbacks winner Jad Sleiman began his reporting career as a com- but don’t give up.” bat correspondent for the U.S. Marine Corps. He said One might assume that this well-decorated journalist that the call to be a journalist is “a mandate to humanize who has been held captive twice has lived a charmed people oceans away.” OPC Foundation President Wil- existence, but Rohde’s fight to become a journalist was liam J. Holstein quipped that Sleiman hadn’t had a hair- self-directed and began with several desk jobs at the cut since leaving the marines. Philadelphia Inquirer, ABC News and The Christian OPC Foundation board member Roy Rowan men- Science Monitor. It was at ABC News where he decided tioned that at 93 he was proud to have made it to the to quit and go to Lithuania to pursue his passion of be- podium to introduce Stephen Kalin, who received this ing a field reporter. That experience first sent him to a year’s scholarship in Rowan’s name. Kalin said he copy editing slot at The Christian Science Monitor and has a passion for journalism and the Middle East. His then as an Eastern European correspondent to cover the grandfather immigrated to the United States in 1920 and war in Bosnia. no one in his family had returned to the Middle East. Rohde urged the scholars to ask questions and re- September 11 motivated Kalin to seek out his roots and member that every story was founded by a team effort. identity in the Middle East. “I’m inspired by correspon- “In Afghanistan and Pakistan, our strongest team mem- dents who learn the language and the region,” he said. bers were the Afghan and Pakistani local journalists,” Kalin and Mateo Hoke took the opportunity at the podium to ask for work and networking opportunities he said. in a room full of prominent media brokers like CBS He stressed that journalism has changed since he be- News Chairman Jeff Fager who was last year’s keynote gan in the 1990s. “In Bosnia then, all sides saw us as speaker. journalists. In Afghanistan, I was seen as part of the U.S. H.L. Stevenson Internship recipient Tom Finn re- war machine and therefore useful.” Rohde said. “It’s not layed his introduction to journalism when he received fair, but you’re a target.” an offer from the Yemen Times about a copy editor posi- He advised that it’s critical to weigh the risks of in- tion: “Our copy editor has a problem with her bowels, terviews and stories. “Ask yourself, will the story be can you be here in three weeks?” Once the audience there tomorrow?” He said he stood by his decision in laughter settled down, he explained that the job gave Bosnia to follow the story about the mass graves; he him the opportunity to wear many hats in the newsroom was held captive for 10 days. In Afghanistan, however, and that after his OPC Foundation internship with the where he was kidnapped and held for seven months and Reuters bureau in Cairo this summer, he’s headed back 10 days, just two months after getting married, he con- to Yemen. fessed that he let competition get the best of him. “If you Lunch and speeches ran a little late, but those who take a risk,” he said, “it will be your family and editors stayed — and that included most people — heard David who will suffer.” His voice became choked with emo- Rohde deliver a heart-felt keynote address. He began by tion when he mentioned his wife and their two-year-old saying to the scholarship winners, “I don’t know you, daughter. “We’re paid to explore and learn. I urge you to but I love you.” He urged patience and persistence and pursue the ground truth. That is an honor.”

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 3 The 2013 OPC Foundation Scholarship Winners Foundation. Presented by Jack Howard-Potter. Marina’s winning essay was about the disproportionate impact of climate change on the vulnerable, indigenous populations of Mexico which is in the throes of its worst drought in 70 years. Her focus was the small village of Xaltipan and the consequences when the nearest river gradually dries up. Conversant in Spanish, Marina intends to return to Columbia, her homeland, for six Michael Dames months after college as a news assistant and researcher for NPR. From left: Mateo Hoke, Jacob Kushner, Jad Sleiman, Stephen Kalin, Valerie Hopkins, Christopher Harress, Patricia Rey Mallén, Frederick Bernas, Marina Villeneuve, Tom Finn, Justine Drennan, Tom Finn Anders Melin, Xiaoqing Pi, and Adriane Quinlan New York University Jad Sleiman 90 percent of the recipients are un- H.L. STEVENSON INTERNSHIP Temple University known. A graduate of the University Funded by the Gamsin family and DAVID R. SCHWEISBERG of Missouri, Anders will spend his sponsored by family and friends. MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP OPC Foundation internship in the Presented by Sharon Gamsin. Sponsored by the Schweisberg Reuters bureau in Brussels. As a British Fulbright scholar, Family. Presented by Matt and Tom is pursuing a dual master’s de- Miranda Schweisberg. Mateo Hoke gree in journalism and near eastern Schweisberg joined United Press University of California-Berkeley studies. He began his career with the Yemen Times and later covered International in 1980 and worked Graduate School of Journalism Yemen for a variety of news outlets. for its bureaus in Detroit, New York, HARPER’S MAGAZINE In his essay, he described the dan- Washington, Hong Kong and Tokyo. SCHOLARSHIP in memory of gerous plight of illegal immigrants In 1987 he worked in UPI’s bureau I.F.STONE who are frequent kidnapping targets in Beijing. During the Tiananmen Endowed by John R. MacArthur of Yemen’s criminal gangs. A gradu- Square student uprising in 1989, his and the Pierre F. Simon Charitable ate of London’s School of Oriental astute dispatches, delivered under Trust. Presented by Rick and African Studies, he has an OPC the threat of censor and arrest by MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s. Foundation internship in the Reuters the Chinese authorities, were read Mateo is currently working on bureau in Cairo. and heard throughout the world. He two main projects, traditional plant was one of the last reporters to leave medicines in the Peruvian Amazon Justine Drennan when the protest was finally crushed and life in the occupied Palestinian Cambridge University by the Chinese Army. territories, the subject of his win- STAN SWINTON INTERNSHIP ning essay and the place where he Endowed by the Swinton Family. Anders Melin has spent most of the last two years Presented by Helen Swinton. New York University working on a book. A graduate of the As a Princeton-in-Asia fellow at REUTERS INTERNSHIP University of Colorado-Boulder, the the Phnom Penh Post, Justine cov- Sponsored by Reuters and funded by multimedia journalist wrote about ered the deportation of a Swedish The Correspondents Fund. tear gas launchers and victims in the hacker and possible WikiLeaks col- Presented by Eddie Evans, Reuters. small village of Bil’in. laborator. She wrote how interna- A native of Sweden, Anders tional aid often plays a role in the wrote about the little known fact that Marina Villeneuve Cambodian politics of deporting for- the European Union is the world’s Dartmouth College eign criminals. A graduate of Princ- largest subsidizer of agricultural ac- IRENE CORBALLY KUHN eton University, Justine has an OPC tivity, a line item that consumes 40 SCHOLARSHIP Foundation internship in The AP bu- percent of the EU budget and yet Endowed by the Scripps Howard reau in Bangkok.

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 4 Christopher Harress of Syrian refugees in Egypt helping Having grown up in Voice of Columbia University Graduate their countrymen adjust to the hard- America newsrooms, Valerie always School of Journalism ships of their temporary home. He is knew her passion was international EMANUEL R. FREEDMAN the first recipient of an OPC Founda- reporting. Proficient in three Balkan SCHOLARSHIP tion internship with the GlobalPost. languages, she has spent the last 2.5 Endowed by family. years in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Presented by Alix Freedman. Adriane Quinlan She wrote about countries that con- Christopher studied journalism at University of Minnesota done tax havens and money launder- Edinburgh Napier University so he FLORA LEWIS INTERNSHIP ing, including the US. A graduate could tell the stories he experienced Endowed by the Pierre F. Simon of William & Mary, she has an OPC as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Charitable Trust. Presented Foundation internship in the Reuters Navy. Now a committed investiga- by Jackie Albert-Simon. bureau in Belgrade. tive journalist, he wrote about the Adriane will spend her OPC unknown world of human trafficking Foundation internship at the AP bu- Frederick Bernas in soccer players. His essay focused reau in Beijing, the city that con- Columbia University Graduate on the 1,000 young Africans living in vinced her to become a foreign cor- School of Journalism poverty in Paris, having been drawn respondent. Having lived there as THE WALTER & BETSY there by the promises of unscrupu- a freelancer and speed typist in the CRONKITE SCHOLARSHIP lous fake football agents-a practice lead-up to the 2008 Olympics, the Funded by Daimler and Supported that will only get worse in the run-up Yale graduate, who is currently pur- by CBS News and friends. to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. suing an MFA in creative writing, Presented by David Rhodes, wrote about theme parks in China, president, CBS News. Patricia Rey Mallén specifically, her own Beijing rite of The unlikely topic of Frederick’s CUNY Graduate School passage: a trip to World Park. winning essay concerned a hip-hop of Journalism battle of the bands for musicians THEO WILSON SCHOLARSHIP Xiaoqing Pi within Mexico City’s prisons and Sponsored by family and friends. University of California at Berkeley their message of hope and rehabilita- Presented by Roz Massow. Graduate School of Journalism tion. Fluent in Russian, the former A native of Spain and a graduate S&P AWARD FOR ECONOMIC Moscow-based broadcast journalist of the Universidad Complutense de AND BUSINESS REPORTING has sets his sites on Latin America. Madrid, Patricia wrote about the per- Endowed by Standard & Poor’s. A graduate of the University of Bris- ils of illegal mining in Peru, a story Presented by Patricia Walsh, S&P. tol in England, he has an OPC Foun- she covered while there on an intern- A graduate of Fudan University, dation internship in the AP bureau in ship with LaRepublica. She focused Xiaoqing is fascinated with the Chi- Buenos Aires. her essay on the impoverished family nese tech industry, especially its larg- of a college student who perished in est tech companies and the under- Jacob Kushner a mine collapse, a not uncommon oc- covered stories of their connections Columbia University Graduate currence in a country where 500,000 to oppressed regimes and reliance School of Journalism are engaged in the illegal enterprise. on Chinese government support for NATHAN S. BIENSTOCK She is fluent in English and French success in global markets. Having MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP and proficient in Portuguese. interned already for The New York Endowed by Richard Leibner Times in Shanghai and the Phnom and Carole Cooper Family Founda- Stephen Kalin Penh Post, Xiaoqing will continue tion. Presented by Richard Leibner. American University in Cairo her work with an OPC Foundation Jacob intends to use the investi- ROY ROWAN SCHOLARSHIP internship in the Reuters bureau in gative skills honed during a two-year Endowed by family, friends and Beijing. stretch in Haiti to uncover the stories admirers. Presented by Roy Rowan. and human consequences of China’s Now living in Cairo on a year- Valerie Hopkins rise in Africa. In his essay, the Uni- long Arabic language immersion fel- Columbia University Graduate versity of Wisconsin-Madison grad- lowship program funded by the U.S. School of Journalism uate reported on how the rapidly de- Department of Education, Stephen JERRY FLINT INTERNSHIP teriorating Sudanese economy may is the first in his family in a century FOR INTERNATIONAL lead to the ouster of its 23-year Arab to return to their Middle East roots. BUSINESS REPORTING president. Fluent in Spanish, Jacob The Davidson College graduate Endowed by family and friends. has an OPC Foundation internship in wrote about the humanitarian efforts Presented by Kate McLeod. the AP bureau in Nairobi.

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 5 OPC Scholarship Luncheon Photos by Michael Dames

Miranda and Matt Schweisberg talk with the 2013 David Schweisberg winner Jad Sleiman.

MANY THANKS From left: 2013 scholars Xiaoqing Pi and Patricia Rey Mallén with OPC Foundation President William J. Holstein. The OPC Foundation is especially grateful for its Patrons and Friends who supported the 2013 Scholarship Luncheon. Their con- tributions ensure the continued success of our scholarship and internship program. Patrons Bloomberg CBS News Daimler Ford Foundation Reuters From left: OPC Executive Director Sonya Fry, Standard & Poor’s keynote speaker David Rohde and OPC Foundation Executive Director Jane Reilly. Friends The Associated Press N.S. Bienstock, Inc. CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Edelman Public Relations From left: Jeff Ford Motor Company Fager CBS News General Motors Chairman and Knight-Bagehot Fellowship, Han Tjan of Columbia University Daimler. Pamela Howard Family Foundation/ Scripps Howard Foundation William S. Rukeyser Walek & Associates

Scholarship winner Mateo Hoke accepts Scholars Jacob Kushner and Anders Melin flank a the Harper’s Magazine Scholarship. guest before the luncheon began.

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 6 Grant Launches to Aid Freelance Correspondents by Aimee Vitrak ing career in the Middle East for The Associated Press, OPC Foundation board member and co-founder of The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and The New GlobalPost Charles M. Sennott announced the launch of York Times. OPC member Shadid who won the OPC Hal a $10,000 GroundTruth Fellowship for a reporting proj- Boyle Award and was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, ect in the Middle East at the OPC Scholars luncheon on died last year while on assignment in Syria. February 22. The fellowship will be awarded to a corre- Applicants are asked to submit a CV, five news writ- spondent working on the ground in the Middle East with ing samples, a cover letter to Charles Sennott explaining a minimum of three years of experience. why they are qualified and a project memo of no more “GroundTruth” is a belief that you need to be there than 500 words outlining an idea for one long-form nar- on the ground to get the story,” Sennott said in a state- rative piece or several shorter pieces that would form a ment. “In an age in which too many journalists operate series. Applications should be e-mailed to ejudem@glo- out of cubicles, we are committed to providing support balpost.com. Deadline: March 28. The winner will be for correspondents who live and breathe the story, who announced mid-April and the work will take place on a speak the language and who know the people and under- mutually agreed upon schedule for publishing on Glo- stand the culture from where they are reporting.” balPost.com in September 2013. The fellowship is in their collective honor and partic- The three-year grant was provided by The Correspon- ularly in the spirit of the late foreign correspondent An- dents Fund and the fellowship will be directed by Sen- thony Shadid, who had a long and distinguished report- nott. The OPC Foundation will administer the grant.

David Rhodes, president of CBS News, with Frederick Bernas, the Cronkite winner.

Scholarship winner Patricia Rey Mallén Irene Curbally accepts the Theo Wilson Scholarship. Kuhn winner Marina Villeneuve with Jack Howard- Potter.

Carole Cooper of N.S. Bienstock talks with Jacob From left: Larry Smith, Roy Rowan and Bill Holstein, Kushner, the first N.S. Bienstock winner all former OPC Presidents.

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 7 PEOPLE... by Susan Kille [email protected]

OPC SCHOLARS Jeremy Gantz, who won the World Press Photo of the Year 2007 H.L. Stevenson award from the OPC Foundation, reported in Febru- ary for the website of In These Times about the precarious financial and physical nature of foreign reporting as news organizations continue to shrink and rely on freelance journalists rather than staffers. Gantz, a contributing editor to In These Times, had a strong personal angle to his report noting that he is a friend, colleague and former roommate of James Foley, a freelancer who was kidnapped by masked gunmen in Syria on Thanksgiving Day and is still missing. William J. Holstein, president of the OPC Foundation, was quoted by Photo of the year for spot news: Two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi Gantz in the piece. “The whole mod- and his older brother Muhammad were killed when their el that made me a foreign correspon- house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. dent has been blown up,” Holstein A photo by Paul Hansen, a Swedish photojournalist for the daily news- said. “Editors and producers have re- paper Dagens Nyheter, was named the World Press Photo of the Year sorted to using freelancers on a much for 2012. The painterly image shows a funeral procession in Gaza where wider, systematic scale. Since so anguished uncles hold the corpses of two small boys as their father’s many of them are young, they lack body is carried behind on a stretcher. The three died in November when knowledge about how to operate in their house was destroyed in an Israeli missile strike. Santiago Lyon, vice president and director of photography for The Associated Press and an dangerous places.” OPC board member, was chairman of the jury. He said a successful photo connects in at least one of three places, “your head, your heart and your WINNERS stomach, and I think this picture works on all three.” Other winners include The George Polk Awards were photos from Syria taken by Rodrigo Abd of The Associated Press and again a showcase for foreign report- Alessio Romenzi for Slate. ing. OPC member Martin Smith Williams and cameraman Andrew under dangerous and freelancer Austin Tice, who Portch were recognized for cover- conditions were has been missing in Syria since Au- age of a Chinese human rights activ- honored with Al- gust, were among the winners of ist. Smith, a Frontline correspondent, fred I. duPont-Co- 14 awards announced February 18. and producer Michael Kirk won for lumbia University Bloomberg News and David Bar- Ward “Money, Power and Wall Street,” a Awards on January boza of The New York Times won foreign reporting awards for separate series about the global financial cri- 22. Clarissa Ward exposés on the wealth and connec- sis. Other winners were California of CBS News, re- tions of the families of China’s rul- Watch, The Maine Sunday Telegram, peatedly snuck into ers. The Times won three awards and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Syria and lived Bloomberg earned two. Tice and Da- The New Yorker and The Washington with families there McEvers vid Enders were part of a team from Post. The awards honor George W. to provide details McClatchy Newspapers honored Polk, a CBS reporter who was killed about life in a country where report- for articles on the civil war in Syria. in 1948 while covering the Greek ing is heavily restricted. Reporting Tracey Shelton of GlobalPost won civil war. for NPR, Kelly McEvers, who is for video reporting on the Syrian based in Beirut, and Deb Amos, a conflict. CBS correspondent Holly Three women in Syria reporting roving correspondent who’s spent

OPC Bulletin • April 2012 • Page 8 three decades cov- election in June. Most of those de- thanked by The Sunday Times for ering the region, tained work for pro-reform publica- his previous work but told they had also made frequent tions. A state-run news agency said a policy “of not taking copy from trips into Syria. the arrested journalists had been ac- Syria as we believe the dangers of Other winners in- cused of “collaborating with some of operating there are too great.” Syria clude a Frontline Amos the Persian-language foreign media” is the deadliest country for journal- story about underage girls in Af- — apparently a reference to the BBC ists, with CPJ reporting 28 deaths in ghanistan forced to become brides and the Voice of America. 2012. to pay off opium debts, Current TV’s Vanguard series for a report on NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar: For- Mexican drug cartels buying guns in eign journalists will soon be able to the United States and a documentary work here for up to a year on new by Alison Klayman, about Ai Wei- short- and long-term journalist visas wei, a dissident Chinese artist. Abi announced in February and expected Wright, an OPC associate board to go into effect in April. For de- member, is director of the awards. cades, reporters visited using tourist OPC member Christiane Aman- visas and filed under pseudonyms. pour was a presenter. The move is part of the dismantling Journalists protest the detention of Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim. of some, but not all, of the country’s PRESS FREEDOM draconian censorship laws. NEW YORK: In its annual “At- MOGADISHU: Protests that followed the January 10 arrest of So- tacks on the Press” survey, The Com- BANGKOK: Somyot Pruek- mali freelancer Abdiaziz Abdinur mittee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sakasemsuk, editor of the Voice of Ibrahim grew into an international reported February 14 that 70 journal- the Oppressed magazine, was sen- outcry when he was sentenced Feb- ists had been killed while doing their tenced January 23 to 10 years in ruary 5 to a year in prison. In a coun- jobs in 2012, a grim increase from jail for publishing articles in 2010 the 47 deaths in 2011, while another try were rape and sexual violence is that prosecutors said defamed King 35 journalists had disappeared. CPJ rampant, Ibrahim was convicted of Bhumibol Adulyadej. An extra year said that in 2012 it had identified insulting state institutions after inter- was added to Somyot’s sentence for 232 journalists who had been impris- viewing a woman who said she was an unrelated defamation conviction. oned, 53 more than a year earlier and raped by government security forces. The articles criticized the role of a the highest number since the survey He did not a file a story from the fictional character that prosecutors began in 1990. interview. The 27-year-old woman said represented the king. Discus- was accused of making a false claim sions about the role of the monarchy MANGALORE, India: Seven and insulting a government body people were arrested after individu- and also sentenced to a year. The are forbidden in Thailand. als believed to be part of a right- sentences have been appealed. Also wing Hindu group attacked employ- in February, journalist Daud Abdi ees of Karavali Ale on February 6, Daud was arrested and detained seized and burned copies of the pa- without charge for more than a week per’s February 7 edition and threat- after speaking out against the impris- ened news vendors, news reports onment of Ibrahim. In a letter from said. The daily paper had published the OPC’s Freedom of the Press a front-page story linking the Hindu Committee, Larry Martz and Jac- Prueksakasemsuk gestures as he group to drug trafficking. queline Albert-Simon urged Prime arrives at court in January. Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon to drop MURDERS TERHAN: At least 15 journal- the charges against Ibrahim. A Ukrainian prosecutor said in ists from four Iranian newspapers a February 20 broadcast interview and one news agency were arrested LONDON: Freelancers have that his office has collected evi- at the end of January and accused said The Sunday Times has asked of contact with foreign news media. them to stop sending reports and dence that proves former President Iranian rights advocates said the ar- photographs from Syria. The Press Leonid Kuchma was involved in the rests were part of a broad campaign Gazette, a British media trade maga- 2000 murder of Georgiy Gongadze, of intimidation to forestall unrest zine, reported February 5 that photo- who founded the Ukrainska Pravda with the approach of the presidential journalist Rick Findler said he was (Continued on Page 10)

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 9 (Continued From Page 9) ment announced a $50,000 reward home in Ogidi to visit the paper’s news site. Gongadze had been prob- for information leading to convic- printing house, reports said. The ing alleged corruption in Kuchma’s tions for the murders of journalists. victim’s brother and co-publisher, government when his headless body According to the International Press Chukwulozie Udendu, said he re- was found in a forest outside Kiev. Institute, at least 18 Somali journal- ceived a call that night telling him Kuchma was investigated for the ists were killed in 2012. On January where to find her brother’s body. killing but charges against him were 18, Abdihared Osman Aden, a pro- dropped. In January, a former sur- ducer for Shabelle Media Network, UPDATES veillance official was sentenced for became the fifth journalist working GLOBAL: On the first anniver- his involvement in the death. for Shabelle to be murdered in the sary of the deaths of Marie Colvin last 13 months. He was shot several and Rémi Ochlik on February 22,

times when three men armed with “A Day Without News?” launched to Bangladesh shut down a blog site pistols opened fire on him as he was provoke the public to imagine what for spreading “hate speech and caus- walking to work in Mogadishu. a day without news might be like. ing communal tension” after it was The initiative, started by a coalition linked to the February 15 murder in Marcelino Vásquez, who owned of international photo journalists, is Dhaka of a blogger who helped or- a radio station in Paraguay near the an awareness campaign to encourage ganize protests against the leaders Brazil border, was shot dead Febru- better protection of journalists and is of the largest Islamic party. Ahmed ary 6 by two armed motorcycle rid- being led by Aidan Sullivan, who is Rajib Haider, an architect and an ers. He was killed while leaving the a Vice Presi- outspoken anti-Islamist blogger, was station on the way home. Report- dent for Getty hacked to death near his home after ers Without Borders said the attack Images. In he joined a large protest demand- likely came from organized crime. the next year, ing the execution of Jamaat-e-Islami In 1991, journalist Santiago Le- the coalition party leaders who are on trials for guizamón was murdered in the same will continue war crimes. According to news re- small town; that case has never been to meet with ports, a fellow blogger said the pro- solved. governments Jamaat website that was shut down to push policy had named Haider as a target. Snipers in Syria were blamed for to fight against impunity and to part- the deaths of two reporters within ner with educational institutions and The body of Nemichand Jain, 24 hours. The Aleppo Media Centre NGOs to identify, investigate and a journalist based in Tongpal, India, said a Syrian Army sniper murdered prosecute cases where journalists was found February 12 on a road Yves Debay, a French journalist and media personnel have been tar- with his throat slit. A note clipped to and founder of the military affairs geted and killed. The initiative seeks his belt accused him of being a po- magazine Assault, on January 17 in journalists of every stripe to sign a lice informer, according to the Times Aleppo. On January 18, Mohamed petition of support and promote the of India. Reports said that Jain, who Al-Massalma, a freelance reporter cause through social media. More worked for the Hindi dailies Hari for Al Jazeera, was shot dead while information and the petition can be Bhoomi and Dainik Bhaskar, had covering frontline fighting in the found on the website adaywithout- gone to a weekly market that day and southern Syrian province of Deraa. news.com. never returned. A statement from Al Jazeera said tar- geting its “collaborating journalists NEW YORK: OPC member and crews will not change the edito- Stephen B. Shepard said in Febru- rial method and guidelines adopted ary that he will step down as dean of by the network since it was launched CUNY’s Graduate 16 years ago for the sake of deliver- School of Journal- ing the truth.” ism at the end of 2013. He said he Ikechukwu Udendu, a Nigerian expects to continue The body of Abdihared Osman Aden. who published and as a professor and In the same month that judicial edited a monthly work on projects in- Shepard officials in Somalia enraged the newspaper, Anam- cluding the univer- world by sentencing a reporter to jail bra News, was sity’s new journalism book imprint. for interviewing a woman who said killed January 12 Shepard became the founding editor she was raped, the Somali govern- after he left his Udendu of the school in 2006 after serving

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 10 ing editor to accept a buyout pack- Photojournalists Now Have an Action Figure age in January from The Times. It

War Journalist: Battlefield Hero, a photojournal- was the fourth time in five years that ist action figure, has gotten a lot of buzz recently, the newspaper has offered buyouts for its novelty, the accompanying realistic cam- to cut newsroom staff. While Ged- era kit and a striking resemblance to Leonardo des is staying on to help with the DiCaprio. In addition to camera gear and chang- transition, others who have left their es of clothes, the set includes a press pass, pen, former jobs include Culture Editor notebook, cell phone, Bluetooth headset and Jon Landman, classical music critic water bottle. The best James R. Oestreich, Deputy Busi- place to get one is on ness Editor Winnie O’Kelley, As- eBay by searching for sistant Managing Editor Jim Rob- “toymaster war journal- erts, Deputy Managing Editor Bill ist.” The complete pack- age sells for about $100 Schmidt, Editor of News Technolo- but the miniature cam- gy Terry Schwadron, Sports Editor era kits are available Joe Sexton, and News Editor Paul separately for around Winfield. $20. On Petapixel.com, comments about the David action figure included: HONG KONG: “This plastic man has better gear than I do!” “I would love a female ver- Schlesinger is making good use of sion!” “Hipsterism now comes to action figures.” “Is this the Jim Nachtw- decades of China and media experi- ey action figure circa 1990 (minus the laptop)?” ence after stepping down in August as chairman of Thomson Reuters more than 20 years as editor-in-chief ity for ethics and standards in the China. Schlesinger is the managing of BusinessWeek. Previously, he was previous structure. In January, Jim director and founder of Tripod Advi- a senior editor at Newsweek and edi- Impoco, a veteran business journal- sors, a consultancy that advises on tor of the Saturday Review. In 2012, ist who had been one of Freeland’s political risk analysis and strategy he published a memoir called Dead- main deputies on the digital side, said and on running global organizations lines and Disruption: My Turbulent he would leave Reuters at the end of with an emphasis on China and me- Path From Print to Digital. The up- the month. Impoco, who worked as dia. He is also chairman of Posei- coming vacancy at CUNY follows an editor at The New York Times and don Research, a due diligence firm. the announcement in October that the late Portfolio magazine, did not Schlesinger joined Reuters in 1987 Nicholas Lemann will leave as dean say where he was headed. In Febru- as a Hong Kong correspondent and of Columbia University’s Gradu- ary, Freeland announced that Jim managed editorial operations in Tai- ate School of Journalism in June; Roberts, who took a recent buyout wan, China, and the Greater China Columbia has not announced his re- from The Times, would be executive region from 1989 to 1995. He was placement. editor of Thomson Reuters Digital, a appointed Reuters editor-in-chief in new position. January 2007 after posts that includ- In a restructuring at Thomson Re- ed global managing editor. He be- uters announced by Editor-in-Chief Digital First Media, which op- came chairman of Thomson Reuters Stephen Adler in December, OPC erates MediaNews Group, Journal China in 2011. member Chrystia Freeland, who Register Co. and Digital First Ven- had been editor of Thomson Reuters tures, announced a content partner- SAN FRANCISCO: Damon Digital, was promoted to managing ship in January with GlobalPost. The Darlin, who has enjoyed one of the director and editor of consumer news. partnership will provide Digital First great runs in international journal- She is now responsible for editorial, Media access to all content produced ism working for a variety of publi- product, sales and design of digital by GlobalPost’s growing network of cations in major cities, is moving to and mobile news properties, all of more than 50 journalists across the New York to begin work as inter- which will be re-launched in 2013. globe. Charles Sennott, an OPC national business editor at The New Alix Freedman, who is a member member, is vice president, executive York Times. He began his career in of the OPC Foundation board which editor and co-founder of GlobalPost. 1979 at the St. Cloud Daily News in grants a scholarship named for her Minnesota. He worked at The Wall father, Emanuel Freedman, became John M. Geddes, a managing Street Journal in Cleveland and De- global head of ethics and standards. editor for The New York Times for troit and then moved to Tokyo for Freedman had editorial responsibil- the last decade, is the highest-rank- (Continued on Page 12)

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 11 (Continued From Page 11) Maryland. He was 87 and had con- paper. One of Drake’s eccentricities, the Journal. He was the Journal’s gestive heart failure. Although best Tudor wrote, was a whirligig, a spin- bureau chief in Seoul from 1989 to known for his books and documen- ning toy made of wire that he twirled 1992 until Forbes lured him to Los taries, Karnow spent decades as a when working on story ideas. A Angeles. Then, he became assistant correspondent in Southeast Asia, whirling whirligig meant Drake was managing editor at U.S. News & working for Time-Life, The Satur- in creative mode. World Report in Washington in 1996. day Evening Post, The Washington In 2000, at the height of the Internet Post, NBC News, The New Repub- bubble, Darlin took the plunge to lic, King Features Syndicate and Business 2.0 magazine in San Fran- the Public Broadcasting Service. cisco. In 2005, he joined The Times Working for Time magazine, he re- as a columnist on the West Coast and ported on the first two American became technology editor in 2007 deaths in Vietnam in 1959 and went while based in San Francisco. on to cover the war in its entirety. In 1983, he published the 750-page Once-and-future bureau chiefs in LONDON: You might want to book Vietnam: A History and a 13- April 1972 in AP’s Saigon bureau, mark your calendar for March 11 and hour PBS documentary, “Vietnam: from left: George Esper, ’73-75; not just because it’s Rupert Mur- A Television History,” followed. Malcolm Browne, ’61-64; George McArthur, ’68-69; Edwin Q. White, doch’s 82nd birthday. John Dale, a Karnow delivered a second compre- ’65-67; Richard Pyle, ’70-73. veteran British journalist, is expand- hensive book about Southeast Asia ing “24 Hours in Journalism,” a 2012 in 1989 that was also accompanied Edwin Q. White, a former Sai- effort that led to a publication voted by a television series; the book, In gon bureau chief for The Associated one of the 40 best books ever about Our Image: America’s Empire in Press, died November 1 at his home journalism. This year he’s calling it the Philippines, earned a Pulitzer in in Honolulu, where he lived after re- “24 Hours In World Journalism.” a career that included Emmy, OPC, tiring in 1987. White, who was 90, He is inviting journalists across the Peabody, Polk and duPont-Columbia had congestive heart failure and was world to detail their day’s activities awards. Karnow also wrote Mao and among five fabled AP Saigon staff beginning at 6 a.m. GMT Monday, China: From Revolution to Revolu- members to die in 2012, including March 11. Details are available at tion (1972) and was a co-author of or his close friend and former Hawaii 24hoursinjournalism2013.com. contributor to other books based on neighbor Roy Essoyan. The others his years in Asia. were George Esper, Horst Faas PEOPLE REMEMBERED and Malcolm Browne. White, who Tom Aspell, a foreign correspon- Harold A. “Hal” Drake, who for spent four decades with the AP, be- dent for NBC News, died February nearly four decades was a reporter, gan covering Vietnam in 1962 when 11 in Cyprus after a two-year battle senior writer and columnist for Pa- he was assigned to AP’s Tokyo bu- with lung cancer. He was 62. After cific Stars and Stripes, died of stom- reau. He served as Saigon bureau beginning his ca- ach cancer January 27 in a hospice chief from 1965 to 1967 as the Unit- reer as a script- in Queensland, Australia. He was ed States shifted from an advisory to writer and camera- 83. His diverse reporting career in- a full combat role. He left on one of man for Visnews cluded the Vietnam War, interviews the last evacuation helicopters from in 1970, Aspell with global entertainers, Mohammed the roof of the U.S. embassy. In the worked for CBS Ali’s boxing, high-level summits and book Lost Over Laos: A True Story and ABC before joining NBC in high school sports. An obituary writ- of Tragedy, Mystery, and Friendship, 1985 as a producer. He later became ten by Geoffrey Tudor of the For- Faas and co-author Richard Pyle a foreign correspondent and covered eign Correspondents’ Club of Japan recalled how White, known as “un- events including the fall of Saigon, relates how Drake’s strengths as a flappable Ed” worked in the Saigon the toppling of Saddam Hussein, journalist and his doggedness led the bureau one night in 1969. As Viet the Bosnian War and Beirut. NBC’s FCCJ board to change its “Regular” Cong rockets tore through the city, Brian Williams described Aspell, a membership qualifications to in- White “calmly cranked a new sheet New Zealand native, as “an intense clude Stars and Stripes, a U.S. mili- of paper into his typewriter,” they brand of cool under fire.” tary paper published in Tokyo since wrote, “put the world on hold while shortly after World War II. Drake’s he relit his pipe, and said, `If you are Stanley Karnow, a prize-win- backers pointed out he was known a journalist at this time in the 20th ning historian and journalist, died for defying military bureaucrats who century, and you are not in Vietnam, January 27 at his home in Potomac, periodically tried to influence the just what … are you doing?’ ”

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 12 Results of Hackers’ Work Threatens Press Freedom by Susan Kille berattacks. Then, Twitter, Facebook and Apple said they Hacked off? You could be. Either with anger at un- were hacked. And it’s not just the Chinese. Bloomberg ethical journalism and the dangerous backlash it could reported February 20 that those three companies were bring or more personally hacked, as described in Bloom- among 40 firms targeted in malware attacks linked to berg BusinessWeek’s February 18 cover story: “Yes, the Eastern European hackers trying to steal company se- Chinese Army Is Spying on You.” crets. First, the journalist hackers: Six more journalists who Reporters Without Borders was among 45 groups had worked for the defunct News of the World were ar- that sent a letter on January 24 asking Skype and its rested February 13 in connection with what Scotland owner Microsoft to release information about user data Yard described as “new lines of inquiry” in its probe of it gives to third parties, including government agencies. phone hacking at the paper that has resulted in 32 ar- Microsoft said it would consider the request. Other on- rests so far. Altogether, more than 100 reporters, editors, line companies, including Google and investigators, executives and public of- Twitter, release regular reports detailing ficials have been arrested in an investi- requests for user data by third parties. gation into possible criminal activity at “Many journalists or activists have re- British newspapers including allegations ported to us that their Skype communica- of bribing officials to obtain confiden- tions have been intercepted,” Grégoire tial information. The investigation has Pouget of Reporters Without Borders centered on two of Rupert Murdoch’s told The Verge, a website that covers British tabloids: The Sun, a daily, and The technology and society. News of the World, a Sunday publication At a news conference about “Attacks closed as the scandal broke in July 2011. on the Press” on February 14, Robert Murdoch’s News International has paid Mahoney, deputy director of the Com- millions of pounds in damages to hacking mittee to Protect Journalists, described victims. Backlash could bring legislation cyberattacks of journalists and news that would end more than three centuries organizations as inexpensive and easy of press freedom from statutory regula- censorship. He cited the examples of tion. On January 30, Nicole Perlroth reported for The The Times and major publications but said many lesser- New York Times that Chinese hackers infiltrated the com- known news organizations as well as individual journal- pany’s computer system in an attack th2323at coincided ists had been subjected to cyberattacks. with the October publication of an exposé on wealth ac- At least 12 reporters working for foreign and local cumulated by the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s prime media in Myanmar, including a correspondent for The minister. The hackers broke into the e-mail accounts of Associated Press, said in early February they received David Barboza, the Shanghai Bureau chief who wrote warnings from Google that their e-mail accounts might the Wen report, and Jim Yardley, who is based in India have been hacked by “state-sponsored attackers.” Myan- as South Asia bureau chief and who had been Beijing mar’s government denied that it was behind any hacking Bureau chief. Security experts hired by The Times found attempts. A Google spokesman confirmed the attacks but evidence that the hackers stole the corporate passwords the company would not say how it determines an attack for every employee and used those to gain access to the is “state sponsored” and would not identify a suspected personal computers of 53 employees, mainly journalists government. who work outside the New York newsroom. The experts The Bloomberg Businessweek cover story on hacking said the hacking techniques used were similar to those of by the Chinese Army was written by Dune Lawrence the Chinese military. Also, Bloomberg News confirmed and Michael Riley. In a sidebar, Lawrence wrote that to The Times that it had been attacked after a June 29 her laptop crashed while she was working on the piece. report on the wealth accumulated by relatives of Xi Jin- After she rebooted, a pink banner at the top of her Gmail ping, China’s vice president at the time. in-box read: “Warning: We believe state-sponsored at- After Bloomberg News and The Times published tackers may be attempting to compromise your account their Chinese exposés, their websites were blocked in or computer.” Google would not comment on the alert or China and they remain blocked. what triggered it. In the two days after The Times reported it was Lawrence wrote: “Security experts can’t say it hacked, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington enough: There are very few places Chinese digital spies Post also reported they had been victims of Chinese cy- haven’t gotten into.”

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 13 In Search of the Calcutta Colonialism Left Behind

EVENT RECAP: FEBRUARY 20 by Aimee Vitrak OPC member, photo journalist and Indiana Univer- sity Professor of Journalism Steven Raymer’s interest in Calcutta began in 1972 when he worked in layout at National Geographic magazine and saw a story about the once-great colonial capital. His interest renewed when he delved into its history, the culture — the city has more than 200 theater troupes and its residents are

known for their affection for politics and literature — Aimee Vitrak and most tantalizing of all: the press corps has been focused elsewhere. “It’s nice to have a bit of an exclusive,” Raymer said at his OPC Book Night on February 20. “I Interlocutor Ruth Fremson and Steve Raymer pose with had never been to Calcutta and wanted to see it and bring his book and the projection of the cover shot behind it to the rest of the world.” them before the talk. He made six trips in five years, partially funded by In- diana University and the rest self-funded that eventually became his new book, Redeeming Calcutta: A Portrait of India’s Imperial Capital [Oxford University Press]. The trips became more difficult for him to make during this time because airlines cut back their direct service to the city. Now, Raymer said, Calcutta is refocusing itself to the South East Asian tourist market and less on the Western world, which only extends the “exclusive” as- pect of the city and its charm. To navigate the city and its many bureaucratic thick- Steven Raymer ets, Raymer did what some journalists might consider taboo: he went to the American consulate and asked for help. “The consulate opened so many doors for me,” The cover image on Raymer’s book of rickshaw-pullers Raymer said. “I used the Americans when I needed to resting on a backstreet. There are some 6,000 licensed rickshaw-drivers in Calcutta. Raymer mentioned the fight bureaucracy.” spontaneous symmetry of this photo during the talk. The press person from Mother Teresa’s Kalighat, the this dates to colonial times and how Calcutta is often Home of the Pure Heart, a hospice for the sick and dy- portrayed in the media as a poor city with subjugated ing, gave him the run-around with all kinds of stipula- natives. He was sensitive to this history and knew that tions for photographing and time limits. He enlisted the being Western put him as an immediate and obvious out- help of the consulate general who arrived to the hospi- sider. Still, he contends that the outsider status enabled tal with two American military personnel and the doors him to see the city with fresh eyes, and an enthusiasm to the hospice were opened and exposed not a decrepit hospital but one with many European doctors-in-training about Calcutta’s architecture, people and history that a who are required to volunteer their services in under- local might overlook. “I could go to a mosque and say, served regions in the world in order to complete their ‘this is all in good faith,’ without being a Hindu or a Jain medical degrees. without so much baggage as a local,” Raymer said. “I Raymer also volunteered to give lectures at universi- brought an emotional distance and persistence.” ties and met local journalists, which gave him greater Photos from the book were projected during the talk insight and sometimes even pointers on where and how with Ruth Fremson, staff photographer for The New York to shoot certain locations. Raymer said this type of part- Times who traveled extensively in India from 2005 to nership is a necessary ingredient for jumping into an as- 2011, served as the interlocutor. signment where so many variables are unknown to the One photo was of people on a bridge, but it was the visitor. story behind the photo that made it all the more amazing: The people of Calcutta were not always enthusias- one million people cross the bridge daily and so many tic participants in Raymer’s project, however, and were people spit on the bridge that the acid from their saliva sometimes hostile when they saw a camera. Raymer said (Continued on Page 15)

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 14 Photos: Steven Raymer

The Hindu faithful perform purification rituals along Raymer used this photo to urge students to be the Hooghly River. In the background is the Howrah tenacious: he knocked on doors in an apartment Bridge where one million people traverse daily. building to ask to shoot this photo from a balcony. So many people spit while walking on the bridge He finally found the right angle with this photo of the acid has weakened the structure. Chitpur Road, Calcutta’s greatest thoroughfare that winds through the city center.

(Continued From Page 14) has weakened the entire structure to the point of collapse. The book is filled with photos that one would instantly recognize as the complexity, cha- os and beauty of an Indian city, and so the book designer suggested a catch-your-breath photo. Raymer selected a photo of a doorway that allowed the eye and mind to rest on a few simple objects. Raymer said his initial plan with shooting Cal- cutta was to preserve a time in history, but when he met with the city’s people and saw that so much of India exists with manual labor while a strong push A shepherd drives his flock through Calcutta tethered by a is being made by large, Western retailers, the pho- mobile phone to markets and customers. Hundreds of tos and book became more about documenting the millions of working poor across India have seen their livelihoods improved thanks to mobile phones. human condition.

(Continued From Page 16) was wounded during the battle of that springs from shared suffering, alongside the British Eighth Army Tobruk in 1942 and evacuated as a and how the vision of world peace in North Africa. The book was only medical casualty. He received the through international government recently published because when it Africa Star and the British Empire might give that suffering meaning,” was written, publishers Medal. Instead of the ro- Betsy Bowen said. in a country hungry for mance and adventure he Croswell Bowen, an OPC mem- victory rejected its peace- had expected, he saw the ber who died in 1971, wrote ex- making message. common experience of tensively for PM, The New Yorker, Bowen’s war report- suffering by soldiers of Harper’s, Town and Country and ing was not from the front all nations. Cosmopolitan, among other publi- lines. He experienced war The memoir was cations, in the 1940s and 1950s. His in field dressing stations, largely unread for some books included the National Book on hospital ships and 65 years before being Award-nominated The Curse of the along what he describes rescued by his daughter, Misbegotten: A Tale of the House of as the “war’s reverse Betsy Connor Bowen, O’Neill (1959). supply lines” where the Bowen in AFS uni- who served as editor. Betsy is planning a biography of wounded and dying were form before leaving “It’s about the brutality her father to be called Truth Teller. removed from battle. He for Tobruk. of war, the compassion — by Susan Kille

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 15 plain what big data is, what can be identify the manholes most likely to done with it, how it will continue to explode. Google uses big data for its New Books change our lives and what we can do powerful language translation ser- GLOBAL HE ABOUNDING AMOUNT to protect ourselves from it. vice. Farecast uses it to predict the T of data being collected about the With data, more isn’t just more. price of airline tickets over time. world — and about ourselves — is More is different. Big data and the This is how Netflix makes its per- changing the way we live. Faster ability to process it means there’s sonalized recommendations. processors, improved networking no need to sample or carefully struc- Cukier recently settled into his and declining costs of storage allow ture an analysis for randomness. current job in London after working greater volumes of data to Everything, including in- from Japan covering business and fi- be captured and sorted to formation that seems to be nance. Earlier, he worked at The Wall reveal information valu- unrelated, can go into the Street Journal Asia in Hong Kong able to business, govern- bucket and be examined for and the International Herald Tribune ment, science and society. common characteristics. in Paris. And, along the way, infor- Increased computing power mation we might want to allows greater tolerance for NORTH AMERICA keep private is being ex- messier data that was once ROSWELL BOWEN WAS posed. discarded. Having more C born in 1905 and grew up in a Big Data: A Revolu- information in the mix can wealthy family. He went to Cho- tion That Will Transform reveal insights that weren’t ate, Yale and the Sorbonne. With his How We Live, Work, and seen before. Analyses of family fortune lost in the Depression, Think [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, samples focus on the “why,” but he joined the International News March 2013] promises to “equip the big data has the power to grasp the Service and was known as a hard- reader with the tools needed for this “what.” The results, the hitting reporter. Bowen, a next phase of human evolution.” authors write, will trans- Catholic pacifist, signed Kenneth Neil Cukier, an OPC form businesses, organiza- on with the non-combatant member and data editor of The tions and the relationship American Field Service as Economist, wrote the book with Vik- between citizens and gov- a photographer in 1941, tor Mayer Schönberger a professor ernments. before America entered at the Oxford Internet Institute at Want specifics? Big World War II. the University of Oxford. They ex- data companies include He began writing and Amazon, eBay, Face- taking photographs for book, Google, LinkedIn Back from Tobruk [Poto- and many other innova- mac Books, November tors. A deluge of data told 2012] in 1941 while en Walmart to ship Pop-Tarts route with his unit of AFS to areas expecting a hurricane and volunteer ambulance drivers to serve allowed New York City officials to Upcoming Events (Continued on Page 15)

Overseas Press Club of America Tchotchke Night 40 West 45 Street Bring a fun story New York, NY 10036 USA and potential OPC member March 8 Details on page 1

OPC Panel: Sunni-Shia Divide March 13 Details on page 1

OPC Bulletin • February 2013 • Page 16