THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • June 2016 Anne Garrels Observes Vast Changes in ‘Putin Country’ and gas prices in 2000 EVENT RECAP when he came in, Putin By Chad Bouchard gave people a sense of When Anne Garrels returned to economic prosperity for the Soviet Union in 1992 to work as the first time,” she said. correspondent for NPR, she looked Garrels said as Rus- for a way to cover long-term chang- sia opened to the West es in one particular community af- in the early 90s, people ter the fall of the Soviet Union. She in Chelyabinsk were chose Chelyabinsk, an industrial excited and optimistic. “middle Russia” city about 1,000 But slowly, they started Chad Bouchard miles east of Moscow. to learn about the rest of On June 7, 2016, the OPC hosted the world and grew sus- Bill Keller, left, and Anne Garrels a book night to discuss Putin Coun- picious as NATO closed try is fraught with contradictions try: A Journey into the Real Russia, in on Russia’s borders. People felt surrounding freedom. On one hand, the result of more than 20 years of like “betrayed lovers,” she said, as young people are happy to be able reporting in Russia and frequent vis- disillusionment set in and the West to download whatever media they its to Chelyabinsk. treated Russians like losers. “It was want, while on the other hand more Garrels said during protests after a toxic combination.” people are being arrested for speak- legislative elections in 2011, West- She said Putin capitalized on ing out under vaguely worded ex- ern media focused too much on what those sentiments to build support for tremism laws. was happening in Moscow, to the his nationalist policies, blaming the Bill Keller, editor-in-chief of The exclusion of the rest of the country. flagging economy on the West and Marshall Project and former Mos- “It was distorting. If you were pledging to become stronger and cow bureau chief of The New York reading The New York Times, you more self-sufficient. Times who served as moderator for would think the country was up in “I think we need to explain why the event, asked Garrels about the arms. But out in the provinces, that – it may be distasteful, we may not role of religion and the Russian Or- was not the case,” she said. want to appreciate or understand thodox Church as changes inundated She said reports had missed out why people like Putin, but I think Chelyabinsk. on alternative perspectives from that we need to.” people living outside the capital. She said that currently the coun- (Continued on Page 5) “By the benefit of high oil prices OPC ANNUAL MEETING AUGUST 9th Inside. Please watch your mail inboxes for updates about the upcoming Recap: Book Night - ‘Nazi Hunters’....2 OPC Board of Governors election. This year, the membership will choose officers, nine (9) Active members of the board and three (3) Foreign Editors Circle Meeting............3 Associate members to begin two-year terms. Next month’s Bulletin IAPC Meeting in Geneva....................4 will feature bios and messages from candidates. OPC’s West Coast Friends..............5 The annual meeting, open to all members, will be held on Aug. 9 People Column.............................6-8 at 6:00 p.m. at Club Quarters, when election results will be announced. Press Freedom Update..............9-10 To cast your vote, you will receive an email from the OPC with a Q&A: Vivienne Walt........................11 link to Balloteer, our online voting service, or you can call the office New Books....................................12 for a paper ballot at 212-626-9220. Nagorski Traces Nearly-Forgotten History in ‘Nazi Hunters’ EVENT RECAP By Chad Bouchard Following the end of World War II, the U.S. and its European allies pivoted immediately to a new mission: to stop the spread of Soviet Communism. The Cold War had begun, Nazis who would have been tried as war criminals suddenly became key resources in the fight against the communists, and the atrocities of the Holo- caust seemed ready to be forgotten. On May 18, 2016, the OPC hosted a book night to discuss OPC member Andrew Nagorski’s book, The Chad Bouchard Nazi Hunters, which follows government agencies and Andrew Nagorski, left, and Deidre Depke. private counterparts who sought justice despite policies Israelis were scouring the globe to find war criminals, Nagorski called “historical amnesia.” for example, is wrong. The Israeli intelligence service, He said for many of the people who joined the mis- Mossad, did not have the resources to chase Nazis in any sion to track down war criminals, prosecution and jus- meaningful way, he said. tice were secondary to the desire to simply record what But journals from Nazi fugitives like Adolf Eich- had happened – to make sure it would never be repeated. mann and Josef Mengele show that they believed those “If the official position had been left alone, and there myths and lived in paranoia that Nazi hunters were al- hadn’t been individuals in government and outside of ways on their trail. governments who really pushed this and made people Nagorski said prosecutors ran into hurdles early on confront this again, I think our whole understanding of because the courts had differing notions of what consti- what happened in this period would be far more limited tuted guilt. German courts required individual charges and pretty myopic.” for specific murders or other crimes with direct evidence In his book, Nagorski challenged some of Holly- wood’s myths surrounding Nazi hunters. The idea that (Continued on Page 4) 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 U.S. Lead Simon Maclean’s Magazine Photography and Brian I. Byrd Michael Serrill U.S. Bureau Chief Visual Enterprise Program Officer David A. Andelman Twitter Moments Politique Internationale TIME magazine Peter S. Goodman NYS Health John Corporon FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Hannah Allam European Economic Robert Nickelsberg Foundation Allan Dodds Frank Calvin Sims Foreign Affairs Correspondent Freelance Alexis Gelber The New York Times President and CEO Correspondent Photojournalist Bill Collins William J. Holstein McClatchy Director, Public & Marshall Loeb International House Newspapers Charles Graeber Mary Rajkumar International Enterprise Business Affairs Larry Martz Freelance Journalist Ford Motor Company Roy Rowan SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Deborah Amos and Author Editor Abigail Pesta Correspondent The Associated Press Larry Smith Freelance Journalist NPR Emma Daly Richard B. Stolley Steve Herman Lara Setrakian Communications Molly Bingham Bureau Chief Co-Founder & CEO Director Southest Asia News Deeply EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THIRD VICE PRESIDENT President & CEO Human Rights Watch Patricia Kranz Pancho Bernasconi Voice of America OrbMedia, Inc. Martin Smith Vice President/News President Daniel Sieberg OFFICE MANAGER Getty Images Rukmini Callimachi Anjali Kamat Rain Media Foreign Correspondent Global Head Boots R. Duque Correspondent of Media Outreach TREASURER Fault Lines Liam Stack The New York Times Al Jazeera English Breaking News Google EDITOR Tim Ferguson Reporter Chad Bouchard Editor Anupreeta Das Azmat Khan The New York Times Minky Worden Forbes Asia Reporter Director of Global Wall Street Journal Investigative Reporter BuzzFeed News Charles Wallace Initiatives OPC Financial Writer SECRETARY Chris Dickey Human Rights Watch ISSN-0738-7202 Deidre Depke Foreign Editor Dan Klaidman Vivienne Walt Copyright © 2015 New York Bureau Chief The Daily Beast, Deputy Editor Correspondent Over seas Press Club Marketplace 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 • June 2016 • Page 2 Curbing the Risks as Attacks on Reporters Escalate By Michael S. Serrill It’s dangerous to be an international journalist. That message was delivered emphatically at the fourth annual Foreign Editors Circle meeting in May. More than 20 representatives of news outlets and associations, includ- ing me and executive director Patricia Kranz from the OPC, convened at the offices of public radio outlet WGBH and painted a dire portrait of a globe where unbiased reporting – let’s call that truth-telling – is not just unwelcome, but of- Charles Sennott ten punished with imprisonment and murder. As the partic- David Rohde of Reuters, leads a session at the Foreign ipants noted, Russia and China have reverted to a level of Editors Circle meeting on May 13. media repression not seen since the heyday of communism. before a dangerous assignment. You can get a copy from (President Xi Jinping of China recently told editors there the ACOS website acosalliance.org or from David at that their only function was to support his government’s [email protected]. ideology.) In Europe, reporters are under pressure from Among the checklist’s provisions: that the editor de- Hungary to Greece to Spain. Regimes across the Middle termine the reporter has had conflict reporting experi- East and Central Asia are cracking down harder than ever, ence, plus safety, first aid and other training; that the re- with Turkish President Recep Erdogan going so far as to porter complete a risk assessment before the assignment, demand that a German media mogul rescind his support and have a method for keeping in communication with the for a beleaguered Turkish comedian who mocked Erdogan. news organization and an emergency evacuation plan. Edi- Much of the daylong Boston meeting – co-sponsored tors should make certain reporters are provided with what- by the Vienna-based International Press Institute, the As- ever expense money and equipment – such as helmet and sociated Press and Charles Sennott’s GroundTruth Proj- flak jacket – they will need on the assignment.