MONTHLY NEWSLETTER I February-March 2019

The Washington Post’s Martin Baron INSIDE to Deliver Keynote at OPC Annual Dinner Event Recap: Scholar Awards Luncheon 2 of stories and journalistic ideals EVENT PREVIEW: APRIL 18 is worthwhile and noble and has a Event Preview: by patricia kranz profound impact on the audience Tiananmen and the subjects of the work,” said After 30 Years 3 s the OPC marks the 80th Pancho Bernasconi, president of the anniversary of its founding People Remembered: OPC. “Maggie’s long-term commit- at the Annual Awards Dinner James P. Colligan 3 A ment to stories, such on April 18, the club will honor all as her powerful and Scholar Profiles 4-5 the journalists who dedicate, risk, Baron Holt NINIAN REID/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS NINIAN REID/WIKIMEDIA deeply moving Click here and even lose their lives covering the to RSVP for the People Column 6-7 reportage from world – now, and over the past eight more than 60 counties around the Annual Awards Haiti over several decades. world for a range of clients including Dinner Press Freedom decades, serves as Update 8-9 Martin Baron, the executive Newsweek, National Geographic, an example of how a editor of The Washington Post, will Smithsonian, and many others. She New Books 10 photojournalist can help bring into be the keynote speaker, and Lester has earned several awards for her sharp relief the issues that impact a Holt, anchor of NBC Nightly News work, including the OPC’s 1988 Ol- Q&A: people and their country.” Andre Borges 11 and Dateline NBC, will present the ivier Rebbot Award, the Leica Medal Baron took the helm as editor awards. of Excellence, Pictures of the Year at the Post in December 2012 after The President’s Award will and World Press Photo awards. serving as editor for The Boston go to Maggie Steber, a celebrated “Maggie Steber’s body of work photojournalist who has worked in shows that dedication to the pursuit Continued on Page 2

Jason Rezaian to Discuss ‘Prisoner’ in Book Night EVENT PREVIEW: APRIL 24 general American audience, first as a freelancer on the same day that the historic nuclear deal for a variety of outlets and later as The Wash- between Iran and world powers was imple- by patricia kranz ington Post’s Tehran bureau chief. mented. oin the OPC for a very special event. He reported on two presidential elections, Fassihi covers diplomacy at the U.N. and Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter Iran’s nuclear negotiations with global powers, foreign policy following a 14-year career as Jwho spent almost two years in Tehran’s the effects of one of the most punitive sanctions a war correspondent in the Middle East. She Evin prison, will discuss his book Prisoner: regimes in modern times, and environmental has covered 6 wars and many uprisings from My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison – Solitary issues. the invasion of Afghanistan to Iraq, Gaza, Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplo- In between the big news events, he Lebanon, Syria, Iran and beyond. She macy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to told the stories of everyday Iranians, has won numerous national awards Get Me Out. Click here reporting on Iran’s small community to RSVP for the including two OPC awards and last The moderator will be Farnaz Fassihi, se- of baseball players, the quest for the book night. year was honored with an Ellis Island nior writer at The Wall Street Journal. best high-end hamburger in Tehran, Medal of Honor. She is the author of Rezaian is one of the few Western journal- and a clinic for female drug addicts. a book on the Iraq war, Waiting for an ists to have been based in Tehran in recent In July of 2014 Rezaian and his wife Ordinary Day. The event will get underway years. From 2009 until his arrest in 2014 he were detained in their home and he went on at Club Quarters at 6:30 p.m. Click on the gold covered stories that tried to explain Iran to a to spend 544 days in prison. He was released button to make reservations. v

1 1 C.J. Chivers Tells OPC Scholars to ‘Stick to Basics’

‘Annual Dinner’ EVENT RECAP about the impact of global climate Continued From Page 1 change. She spoke about reporting by chad bouchard on the effects of climate change in Globe from 2001 to 2012. he overseas Press Club Senegal, where traditional seasonal Newsrooms under his Foundation presented 16 rains have become so torrential that direction have garnered Tscholarship awards at the they spark floods and wash away fer- multiple OPC awards and organization’s annual Scholar tile soil. Gray said she was moved by Pulitzer Prizes, among Awards Luncheon on Friday, Feb. the prayers of those she talked to for other honors. Baron has 22, 2019, at the Yale Club. the story. They prayed for her safety, been an outspoken critic OPC Foundation President Bill and prayed that the story would make of President Trump’s at- Holstein said during his opening KANG SYLVIA SANGSUK something happen. “Most stories about tacks against press and remarks that the organization is but you are going through this with climate change are pretty awful. They what he called the “mud- joining a global battle by launching us,” she quoted the man saying, “your are constipated with numbers that none the careers of journalists’ who share dling of fact and fiction.” story will be different.” Duarte has an of us quite understand,” she said. She key values of integrity and hard work. credited her teachers at Columbia for Last February, during the OPC Foundation fellowship with the “We’re fighting against the forces reinforcing that good reporting means Reuters Memorial Lecture GroundTruth Project. “I want to give of isolationism, against a sort of na- “you get your body there, you observe, at Oxford, he said that in visibility to invisible realities,”she tional navel-gazing that’s going on said. and you write something that makes the face of “an unrelent- today. We’re fighting against all the people feel a [certain] way,” she said. ing assault from the most This year marked the launch of bullies and thugs around the world, the first Richard Pyle Scholarship, “My intention is to use the years left powerful person on earth, including here at home,” Holstein told which went to A.J. Naddaff, a student that I have to work to write stories that the answer for us is clear: the capacity luncheon crowd. at Davidson College with reporting make you feel something, to answer Just do our job. Do it hon- C.J. Chivers, Pulitzer Prize- experience in the Middle East, North the prayers of these women, for whom estly, honorably, seriously, winning correspondent for The New Africa and Kosovo. The award’s the stakes could not be higher.” v fairly, accurately, and also York Times, was the keynote speaker. namesake spent 50 years at The Asso- unflinchingly.” He began by rejecting what he called ciated Press. In presenting the award, Holt spent a total of 19 a cliché descriptor of journalism as OPC member and veteran AP reporter years as reporter and an- merely “bearing witness,” and called Edith Lederer remembered when Pyle chor at CBS in New York, on the scholars to instead “validate was her boss as Saigon bureau chief MANY THANKS Los Angeles and Chicago and lift the suffering of people who while she covered the Vietnam War. before moving to NBC in are in the way and trod upon. You can She called Pyle “a brilliant word- The OPC Foundation is especially 2000. In 2015 he became expose, indict and shame the powerful, smith who never lost his passion for grateful for its Patrons and permanent anchor of NBC the ignorant and the abusive. And you pursuing important stories and ‘the Friends who supported the Nightly News, replacing can explain, if you’re smart, the most truth.’” Naddaff said in his remarks 2019 Scholar Awards Luncheon. Brian Williams. pressing problems of modern times to that during his time reporting on ISIS Their contributions ensure The Annual Dinner at your fellow citizens with sound analy- in Kosovo, he learned that “pushing the continued success of the sis and compassion.” foundation’s scholarship/ Cipriani, 25 Broadway, through fear creates the best stories.” He reminded scholars to “stick to will get underway with Naddaff will head to Beirut for an fellowship program. basics,” and to “remember that very a cocktail reception at OPC Foundation fellowship with the little that’s good rises from weak 6:00 p.m., with the dinner AP. Patrons roots.” Irene Corbally Kuhn Scholarship and program at 7:00 p.m. Bloomberg This year’s winners included six winner Mehr Nadeem spent 10 years Click on the gold but- Daimler from Columbia University, two from growing up on an expat compound ton on the front page to Reuters Harvard, and one each from Yale, in Saudi Arabia. In her remarks, she RSVP, or visit: Brown, Tufts University, UC-Berke- spoke about how the constant threat Marcus Roy Rowan bit.ly/OPC_RSVP. v ley, University of Missouri, UNC- of terrorist attacks created a claustro- Toyota Motor North America Chapel Hill, SOAS University of phobic atmosphere in the compound. Friends London and Davidson College. Each The piece she submitted for the The Associated Press recipient spoke briefly about their fu- scholarship was a long-form investi- Boies Schiller Flexner LLP ture goals and past reporting, sharing gation into a security and surveillance stories from the field. partnership between Saudi Arabia and CBS News This year’s Harper’s Magazine the University of New Haven. “I’m Finsbury Scholarship in Memory of I.F. Stone drawn to this profession for its relent- Pamela Howard Family Foundation went to Letícia Duarte, who followed less commitment to breaking bound- Leibner/Cooper Family Foundation a Syrian refugee family for seven aries, both physical and intellectual,” Quest Diagnostics days from Greece to Germany across she said. William S. Rukeyser eight countries to escape civil war. The Nathan S. Bienstock Memo- S&P Global She recalled one refugee telling her rial Scholarship went to Audrey Gray, Taipei Economic & Cultural Office that “most journalists just ask a lot a graduate of the Columbia University in New York of questions and then leave. But you Graduate School of Journalism. Gray The Wall Street Journal stayed with us. You didn’t have to, is focused on long-form journalism February-March 2019 2 Tiananmen: Does It C.J. Chivers Tells OPC Scholars to ‘Stick to Basics’ Reveal China’s Future? Schell and Susan Jakes at the Center for dents or workers and that the pro-democracy EVENT PREVIEW: MAY 9 U.S.-China Studies at the Asia Society as movement had to be crushed. Leaders ever by william j. holstein well as Jerome Cohen at the U.S.-Asia Law since have wrestled with the question of how Institute at New York University. We also much of a “civil society” should be allowed he opc will present a program are exploring possible participation from to develop. President Xi, who has declined dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Columbia University. to identify a successor and thus could rule the Tiananmen Square Massacre on T The committee wants to document what for life, seems to adhere to the hard line and Thursday, May 9 at Club Quarters. It’s an happened at Tiananmen but we are not inter- is determined to prevent any segment of his opportunity for China hands to once again ested in just a walk down memory lane. We 1.4 billion population from ever mounting get together. also want the panelists to talk about how the a challenge to the party’s rule. He has also Entitled “Tiananmen Thirty Years Later: Chinese government has pursued Tianan- wiped out lawyers for dissidents, cracked A Portent of China’s Totalitarian Future?”, men survivors around the world for the past down on foreign non-governmental organi- the program will present a series of panel three decades, hacking into their phones and zations and jailed thousands of party mem- discussions to discuss what happened on sending spies into their midst. That squares bers in an effort to impose new discipline June 4, 1989 but also discuss the direction with President Xi’s efforts to recentralize and new loyalty to himself. In sum, he may that President Xi Jinping is taking China all power in China in the hands of the Com- be creating the most technologically sophis- today and into the future. munist Party and exploit new technologies ticated totalitarian state in human history. Attending will be Wu’er Kaixi, an ethnic to eliminate all forms of dissent, such as We’re planning a number of panel dis- Uighur who was at Tiananmen; Fang Zheng, massive camera networks supported by cussions and plenty of time for fellowship who lost both legs after a tank rolled over facial recognition software and Artificial and networking. This is the first reunion of him and is now president of the Chinese Intelligence; the development of a social China Hands since the one we organized in Democratic Education Committee; and credit rating system; enhanced monitoring late 2014. Rose Tang, who survived by crawling over of the Internet and all forms of social media; Anyone who was either at Tiananmen or a tank to escape the square and is currently and the detention of segments of its popula- who has covered China (or is interested in an activist. They will be joined by Western tion in what the government calls “retrain- today’s China) is welcome to attend. There journalists who covered the events as well as ing facilities.” About 1 million Uighurs in will be an as-yet undetermined fee for food American academic experts. western China are reportedly locked up in and drink. The OPC’s board has generously The organizing committee for the event these camps, whose real intent appears to be agreed to defray some of the event’s ex- consists of Minky Worden, Pete Engardio, breaking their faith in Islam. penses. Watch the OPC website for further Carroll Bogert and myself. We are develop- The party’s leadership decided in 1989 details. v ing the event in cooperation with Orville that it could not tolerate dissent from stu- OPC and FCCJ Remember James P. Colligan by bradley k. martin where he exhibited his artistic talent ames p. Colligan, a Roman Catholic priest and a longtime member by constantly sketching cartoons on of the OPC and Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) who the backs of drink coasters. He and the died at 90 on Jan. 31 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had something in late Richard Pyle of the AP “scribbled J lots of cartoons, often funny ones,” common with Cold War-era journalistic contemporaries who represented government-funded news organizations ranging from VOA and Stars and recalls former club board member Stripes to Komsomolskaya Pravda and Novoye Vremya, and who did not Toshio Aritake. Some of those cartoons, wish to be – or to be seen as – anything less than first-class correspondents. signed “Japacol,” made it into Number Father Colligan was determined to show that church-sponsored jour- 1 Shimbun. nalism was the real deal. Representing UCAN (Union of Catholic Asian Eventually, in 1997, Father Colligan Colligan News) and then CNS (Catholic News Service), he threw himself into both wangled a career-capping assignment reporting good stories and participating in the professional activities that to Los Angeles. He returned to Maryknoll’s headquarters in Ossining, NY, help make good stories possible. He served three terms as chair of the For- to live in the society’s retirement home for a couple of years. Then, after eign Press in Japan and was elected to the FCCJ’s board. cerebral incidents and an eventual diagnosis of dysphasia, he moved back “Jim was on my board,” recalled Mike “Buck” Tharp, Club president to Pittsburgh – by then a city cleaned up, gentrified and quite pleasant. His 1989-90. “Just as he always was while sitting at a table in the Main Bar, final two years, during which he went silent on social media, were spent in Jim was often the grownup in the room. He was measured, polite, intel- assisted living there as some of his many relatives helped look after their ligent and empathetic with a subtly wicked sense of humor.” beloved brother and uncle. “The adventurous life that he led was some- He took time out to study journalism back in the United States, at thing that touched my entire family,” a nephew, Shawn MacIntyre, said in Syracuse University, then returned to Japan as a journalist. A highly ac- a eulogy. complished photographer, he published a book of photos of the 1981 visit Former OPC member Bradley Martin most recently is the author of to Japan by Pope John Paul II. Nuclear Blues, a novel set in North Korea in the near future. This is an Non-religious news stories he covered included the 1992 visit of excerpt of a longer piece about Colligan’s life, which you can read in full President George H.W. Bush. He was a fixture evenings in the Main Bar, at opcofamerica.org. v

February-March 2019 3 women who battle taboos to be- come drummers, the subject of her winning essay. Rachel is a gradu- ate of Macalester College. She has an OPC Foundation fellowship with GroundTruth Films.

CLAIRE PARKER Harvard University Stan Swinton Fellowship SANGSUK SYLVIA KANG SYLVIA SANGSUK Endowed by the Swinton Fam- Left to right: Mehr Nadeem, A.J. Naddaff, Krithika Varagur, Rachel Mueller, Sarah Champagne, Rebecca ily; presented by Helen Swinton, Redelmeier, Jonas Ekblom, Daphne Psaledakis, Sarah Wu, Letícia Duarte, Audrey Gray, Eli Binder, Emma Stan’s wife Vickers, Claire Parker, Echo Wang and Rebekah Ward. Claire wrote about the Tunisian transitional justice project. On a 2019 OPC Foundation Scholarship Winners three-week reporting trip there last summer, she met Basma Bala’I, Following is a list of the sixteen 2019 scholarship and fellowship the first woman to bear witness to recipients, their affiliations, the prize they won, the presenter, and a brief MEHR NADEEM the abuses of the previous regime. description of their winning applications. Yale University A dual U.S./Irish citizen, she Irene Corbally Kuhn speaks Arabic and French. An edi- Scholarship tor at the Harvard Crimson, Claire REBECCA REDELMEIER experience in his native Sweden, Endowed by the Scripps Howard formerly interned at The Boston Tufts University he is a graduate of the University Foundation; presented by Jack Globe and Texas Tribune. After David R. Schweisberg Memorial of London. Focused on EU politics Howard-Potter of the Pamela an internship this summer at the Scholarship and policies, he is fluent in English, Howard Family Foundation foreign desk of The Washington Sponsored by the Schweisberg Norwegian and Dutch. Jonas has an Post, she will travel to Paris for an Family; presented by David’s OPC Foundation fellowship in the Born to Pakistani parents in OPC Foundation fellowship in the brother, Matthew Schweisberg Reuters bureau in Brussels. London, Mehr spent most of her Associated Press bureau. youth in the narrow confines of a As a junior reporter with the LETÍCIA DUARTE compound for Western ex-pats in ECHO WANG Daily Maverick & Groundup Columbia University Graduate Saudi Arabia. A former Bloom- Columbia University Graduate News in Cape Town, Rebecca School of Journalism berg intern, Mehr wrote about School of Journalism encountered Daphne, a much Harper’s Magazine Scholarship her three-month-long investiga- Emanuel R. Freedman maligned yet hopeful homeless in memory of I.F. Stone tion into the security partnership Scholarship transgender woman with HIV, Endowed by John R. MacArthur between the Interior Ministry of Endowed by family; presented by known best by the birds she feeds and the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Saudi Arabia and the University of Paritosh Bansal, Reuters man- every day. Proficient in French, Trust; presented by Rick MacArthur, New Haven. A dual U.K./Pakistani aging editor for news in the Rebecca honed her social media, publisher, Harper’s Magazine citizen, she is fluent in Urdu and Americas digital skills and audio editing at Hindi and proficient in Arabic. a media-monitoring startup and In her essay, Letícia recounted the Echo is foremost a business with Public Radio. She has dual story of a Syrian refugee family she RACHEL MUELLER journalist, a beat she honed as a U.S./Canadian citizenship. accompanied on a perilous seven- UC-Berkeley Graduate School field reporter forLe Monde and day, eight-country journey from JONAS EKBLOM of Journalism Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung Greece to Germany. The response to H.L. Stevenson Scholarship in her native China. Currently Columbia University Graduate her report which ran in Zero Hour, School of Journalism Sponsored by family and friends; with NPR Planet Money, she a newspaper in her native Brazil, presented by Charlie Sennott, wrote about the burgeoning wine Reuters Fellowship cemented her commitment to for- Sponsored by Reuters and presented founder and editor, GroundTruth industry in China, specifically eign correspondence. A journalism Project one award-winning family-owned by Tiffany Wu, Americas Editor, graduate of the University of Caxias Reuters winery that is raising the profile do Sul, she is fluent in Portuguese, Rachel intends to focus her career of Chinese wines. A graduate of English and Spanish. Letícia has an Jonas spent 2011 in Bosnia and reporting in East Africa, an area the Shanghai International Studies OPC Foundation fellowship with that has captured her interest since University, she has an OPC Foun- Herzegovina, where he witnessed the GroundTruth Project. the memorial service and reburial of 2007 when she moved to eSwatini dation fellowship with Reuters in 613 newly identified victims of the (formerly Swaziland). A documen- New York. Srebrenica massacre, the subject of tary filmmaker, she also speaks his winning essay. A multi-media French, Swahili and Wolof. In her journalist with print and video essay, she wrote about Guyanese February-March 2019 4 SARAH WU travels to 13 countries, Sarah is of Colgate University and speaks KRITHIKA VARAGUR Harvard University now focused on Latin America, professional French and Spanish. SOAS University of London Roy Rowan Scholarship specifically Colombia. In her es- A dual U.S./Canadian citizen, she Sally Jacobsen Fellowship Endowed by family, friends and say, she wrote about Guatemalan has an OPC Foundation fellow- Endowed by family and friends; admirers; presented by Roy’s son, rape victims seeking justice in a ship with Reuters in Mexico City. presented by Sally’s husband, Marc Roy Rowan Canadian court after being denied Patrick Oster in their native country. A multi- AUDREY GRAY Sara plans to cover cultural and media journalist and a Canadian Columbia University Graduate Krithika has spent her impressive economic changes in China, a citizen, Sarah is a graduate of the School of Journalism freelance career focused on reli- country she left as a child when University of Montreal. She is Nathan S. Bienstock Memorial gion, particularly Islam, and the her family emigrated to Canada. fluent in French, English, Spanish Scholarship Gulf countries’ religious invest- Now fluent in Mandarin, she wrote and Italian. Endowed by the Richard Leib- ments abroad. In her essay, she her essay about how Chinese se- ner and Carole Cooper Family wrote about the efforts and perils nior citizens in Seattle were being EMMA VICKERS Foundation; presented by Richard of a Kosovan iman and his friend driven from their neighborhoods Columbia University Graduate Leibner to document instances of Saudi in- by new real estate development, School of Journalism fluence in everyday Kosovan life. a front-page story she covered as Jerry Flint Fellowship for In- A mid-career journalist, Audrey is A Harvard graduate and current an intern for The Seattle Times. A ternational Business Reporting completing her pivot from public Fulbright scholar, she speaks na- news editor at the Harvard Crim- Endowed by family and friends; radio and TV to corporate commu- tive Tamil, advanced Spanish and son, she has an OPC Foundation presented by Kate McLeod, Jer- nications and now back to long- Bahasa Indonesia. She has an OPC fellowship in the Reuters bureau ry’s wife, and Joe Flint, his son form narrative magazine-writing, Foundation fellowship with The in Hong Kong. the best format for her to report Associated Press in New Delhi. Emma is the first recipient of on how humans are adapting to DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS a Bloomberg-OPC Foundation the global climate crisis. In her A. J. NADDAFF University of Missouri fellowship. After six years in essay, she wrote about working Davidson College Flora Lewis Fellowship South Sudan, she has a keen alongside women in South Africa Richard Pyle Scholarship Endowed by the Pierre F. Simon understanding of how economic as they collected and recycled hu- Endowed by family and friends Charitable Trust; presented by opportunities can become politi- man waste. A graduate of Syracuse and presented by Brenda Smiley, Jackie Albert-Simon, Flora’s cal risks in Sub-Saharan Africa, University, she has also worked in Richard’s wife friend a concern for Lesotho’s burgeon- photography, video and podcast ing marijuana farming industry. production. Not all stories in the Middle East Daphne believes her childhood Now a Fulbright scholar, she has and North Africa are about con- spent traveling and living abroad degrees from the University of ELI BINDER flict. Some are about the arts, such has prepared her well for a career Nottingham and the School of Brown University as A.J.’s essay about a Palestin- as a foreign correspondent. In Oriental and African Studies at Fritz Beebe Fellowship ian refugee in Syria who rebelled her essay, she wrote about the the University of London. She is Endowed by Anne and Larry against social and family mores to unintended consequences of Bel- proficient in French. Martz; presented by Larry and become a dancer with the Dutch gium’s race-blind approach to data Anne Martz National Ballet. A French and Ara- collecting, a story she first covered REBEKAH WARD bic speaker with dual U.S./Belgian as an intern in the Reuters bureau Columbia University Graduate Eli’s interest in China began the citizenship, A.J. also reported on in Brussels. Fluent in French, she School of Journalism day he tasted Sichuan food and ISIS fighters returning to Kosovo has also covered state government Walter & Betsy Cronkite has never wavered. Now a senior for the Pulitzer Center. He has an for the Columbia Missourian. Scholarship at Brown, he wrote about Chinese OPC Foundation fellowship with Daphne’s OPC Foundation fellow- Funded by Daimler and Sup- entrepreneurs who find success in The Associated Press in Beirut. ship will take place at a Reuters ported by CBS News and friends; Sri Lanka. They do so while re- bureau in Europe. presented by Al Ortiz, Vice maining within their own linguis- President of News and Standards, tic and cultural communities and SARAH CHAMPAGNE CBS News catering solely to Chinese tourists University of North Carolina- and the maritime nation’s growing Chapel Hill As a reporter and field producer Chinese middle class. Eli speaks S&P Global Award for Economic for France 24, Rebekah traveled Mandarin and some French. He and Business Reporting the rivers of Colombia’s south- has an OPC Foundation fellowship Endowed by S&P Global; ern Pacific region by motorboat, with The Wall Street Journal in presented by David Guarino, where she learned that violence Hong Kong. Head of External Communications against women did not end with Officer, S&P Global the 2016 peace treaty in the for- merly occupied FARC areas – the After a career that so far includes subject of her essay. A multime- four years at a Montreal daily and dia journalist, she is a graduate

February-March 2019 5 By Farwa Zaidi and Chad Bouchard WELCOME PEOPLE N E W OPC SCHOLARS Women’s Media Founda- MEMBERS Amelia Nierenberg, the 2018 Flora tion; Finbarr O’Reilly, Lewis Fellowship winner, has been freelancer photographer Brant DeBoer named to the inaugural New York Times based in London; Andréa Columbia University year-long Fellowship Program. She Schmidt, freelancer based Intern AFP Bureau has been assigned to the Food section. in Toronto; Art Sotloff, Paris Amelia is currently in Dakar, Senegal, founder of the 2LIVES Student for an OPC Fellowship with The As- Steven Sotloff Memorial Azad Essa sociated Press. The Times received Foundation; and Daniella Reporter more than 5,000 applications for the Zalcman, photojournal- Middle East Eye program. ist based in New York Maplewood, and London. ACOS was New Jersey Ben Taub, the 2015 Emanuel R. founded to champion safe Active Resident Nierenberg Taub Freedman winner, won his second DAMES MICHAEL and responsible journalis- Dafna Linzer reira (third place). The Gomma Grant tic practices and embed a Managing Editor George Polk Award in Journalism NBC News and MSNBC this year in the category of Magazine launched in 2014 as a way to support culture of safety across newsrooms and New York Reporting for his 2018 story in The early-career photographers and unpub- among freelance and local journalists Active Resident New Yorker about the campaign against lished talent. worldwide. Jessica Obert ISIS in Iraq, which has led to mass The James W. Foley Legacy According to New York Magazine’s Freelancer executions, detainment camps, and a Port-au-Prince, Haiti Foundation has announced honorees blog The Cut, about 2,100 media culture of revenge. Award presenters Active Overseas, Young for the 2019 James W. Foley Freedom employees lost their jobs in the last lauded Taub’s tenacity in reporting a (29 or under) Awards to be hosted in Washington, two weeks of January. On Feb. 1, The story that had gone largely unreported Lucy Sherriff DC, on April 2. Washington Post Hollywood Reporter reported that Vice despite being “repeatedly threatened Freelancer journalist Jason Rezaian will Media would be laying off 10 percent Los Angeles and detained by militias during his receive the 2019 World Press Freedom of their staff. That same day, it was re- Active Non-Resident, Young three weeks in Iraq.” Taub is only the (29 or under) Award. U.S. diplomat Bret McGurk ported that McClatchy, which operates eighth person to win back-to-back Polk will receive the 2019 Hostage Freedom newspapers nationwide, was laying Awards since the prize was founded, Award for his part in securing the off 450 employees. Both these reports and the first to do so in the last two release of Rezaian and several other came just a week after massive layoffs decades. Americans held captive in Iran. at Verizon and Buzzfeed. Verizon owns HuffPost, AOL and Yahoo. They cut 7 AWARDS Several journalists with ties to the percent of their staff, while Buzzfeed Along with Ben Taub, OPC member OPC are among the finalists for the laid off 15 percent. The Gannett Com- Jane Ferguson of PBS NewsHour 2019 Anthony Shadid Award for pany, which runs more than 1,000 daily was also among the roster of George Journalism Ethics. The list includes newspapers and weeklies around the Polk winners this year. Ferguson won 2016 Hal Boyle Award winner country, also eliminated around 400 the Foreign Television Reporting for her Hannah Dreier of ProPublica; jobs. reporting on victims of the humanitar- 2017 Joe and Laurie Dine Award ian disaster in the proxy war between winner Maggie Michael of The OPC member Ingrid Ciprian- forces allied with Saudi Arabia and Iran Associated Press; OPC Foundation Matthews has been promoted to in northern Yemen. Winners of the 2018 scholar Garance Burke of the executive vice president at CBS News. awards will be honored at a ceremony AP, who won the 2004 Emanuel Ciprian-Matthews is a 25-year veteran at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan R. Freedman scholarship; Martha at CBS and has served as SVP of News on April 5. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Mendoza of the AP, who was part Administration since January 2015. In Oo of Reuters received the Polk Award of the investigative team that won her new role as Executive VP of strate- for Foreign Reporting covering police the 2017 Malcolm Forbes and Hal gic professional development, she will exactions of Rohingya Muslims in the Boyle Awards, and Gary Marx of focus on recruitment and development village of Inn Din in Myanmar. The re- The Chicago Tribune, who garnered a of off-air talent. She has been at CBS porters were convicted of violating their citation in 2005 in the Robert Spiers since October 1993, when she was a nation’s official secrets act and are serv- Benjamin Award category. The Shadid senior producer for live segments on ing seven years in prison despite global Award winner will be announced on CBS This Morning. pressure to free them. March 14. Former Costa Rican President Oscar OPC member Martyn Aim was UPDATES Arias Sanchez has been accused among the photographers shortlisted On February 13, the ACOS Alli- of sexual misconduct by four differ- for a Gomma Photography Grant, a ance appointed seven new direc- ent women. One of those women is prize for “emerging image-makers.” tors to its board, including: Mathias past OPC Governor and head of com- The grant ultimately went to Tabitha Dreissig of Deutsche Welle; Sally munications at Human Rights Watch, Barnard (first place), Vladimir Vasilev Fitton of the BBC; Elisa Muñoz, ex- Emma Daly. Daly was the second (second place) and Fatima Abreu Fer- ecutive director at the International woman to come forward, telling The February-March 2019 6 Washington Post that Arias groped actions and special situations. her in 1990 when she was a reporter She spent seventeen years as a covering Central America and he was reporter, including six in Tokyo still president. She had asked him a and Beijing, working for The COURTESY OF STEVE RAYMER STEVE OF COURTESY question in a hotel lobby, and instead Wall Street Journal, San Jose The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong hosted an exhibit of answering it, Arias assaulted her. Mercury News and Newsweek. of 34 prints, seen here at the facility’s main bar, from Steve At the time, Daly was based in Costa Softbank is currently awaiting Raymer’s book, “Somewhere West of Lonely,” through Feb. 17. Rica, working for The Tico Times and federal approval of its’ merger Reuters, and frequently covered Arias. of T-Mobile and Sprint. They The Bates College Museum of Art is hired Time Warner/News Corp. alum currently showcasing OPC member OPC Governor John Avlon is hosting Gary Winsburg as senior VP and head th and photojournalist Peter Turnley’s the 54 Ellie Awards at Brooklyn Steel of communications. Lubman began her work in an exhibit titled “Peter Turnley: in Williamsburg, New York on March new role on Feb. 11. 14. The American Society of Magazine Refugees.” The exhibit will be open Editors will honor 22 winners, each of On Jan. 23, OPC Governor Minky through March 23. Turnley has spent which will each receive an “Ellie,” the Worden served as a panelist at the the last thirty years covering some of elephant-shaped statuette that gives National Center for Civil Rights’ pro- the world’s most significant conflicts. the awards their name. More than 500 gram titled “Breaking Barriers: Sports One of his most recent projects is an on- magazine editors and publishers are for Change.” Her panel was focused on going documentation of refugees around expected to attend. The evening will the role of sports in LGBTQ+ rights. the world. Turnley’s photographs have include the presentation of the 2019 Other panelists included WNBA player been featured in numerous publications ASME Award for Fiction and five win- Layshia Clarendon, rugby player and worldwide, including Newsweek and ners of the 2019 ASME Next Awards coach Phaidra Knight, transgender National Geographic. for Journalists Under 30. professional boxer Pat Manuel, and PEOPLE REMEMBERED Michael Sam, who was the first openly Award-winning Reuters photographer OPC member and veteran photojour- gay player to be drafted in the NFL. Yannis Behrakis died on March 2 nalist Steven Raymer has been Worden is the director of Global Initia- after a long battle with cancer. He was honored with the National Press tives at the Human Rights Watch. Photographers of America award for 58 years old. Behrakis was renowned photojournalism ethics. He received David Ariosto, OPC Governor and for his work, covering notable conflicts the John Long ethics award at a cer- author of the recently released book in Afghanistan and Chechnya, an emony on March 9. The NPPA said in This is Cuba, joined OPC member earthquake in Kashmir, and the an announcement that “Raymer’s pro- Ali Velshi on MSNBC to discuss the Egyptian uprising of 2011. He also fessional photography spans decades, current crisis in Venezuela. Ali Velshi led a Pulitzer Prize-winning team in and he has always held himself to the hosts a weekly business show on 2016 for coverage of the refugee crisis. highest ethical standards.” Separately, MSNBC called Velshi and Ruhle, on Behrakis started at Reuters in 1987 as in January Raymer addressed members which he and Stephanie Ruhle dis- a freelancer. In 1999, he won OPC’s of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of cuss topics like markets and personal John Faber Award for best photographic Hong Kong, which hosted an exhibi- finances. Ariosto was invited on the reporting from abroad in newspapers or tion of 34 prints from his book, Some- show because of his vast knowledge on news services for his work in Kosovo. where West of Lonely, through Feb. 17. Cuba and other Latin American coun- Steve Bell, a longtime ABC News He told attendees that “the whole idea tries. He had also reported from Ven- journalist and multiple OPC award of the photographic truth of a picture ezuela while working for Al Jazeera winner, died at age 83 on Jan. 25. Bell is very much under attack in this era of America in 2014. was best known as anchor of Good fake news.” Raymer’s career as a Na- Morning America and World News tional Geographic photographer took OPC member Alice Driver gave a talk This Morning. He served as corre- him to over ninety countries. Before at Colorado College on Feb. 5 about spondent from 1967 to 1986. He was retiring in 2016, Raymer was a tenured reporting on migration. Her lecture fo- professor emeritus of telecommunica- full professor in the Media School at cused on the “humanistic” aspect of the tions at Ball State University, where Indiana University in Bloomington. He migrant caravan from Central America to he taught from 1992 to 2007. Bell won has continued to teach there during his the U.S. boder that made headlines 2018. the 1969 Ben Grauer Award for Best retirement. Driver said she tried to depoliticize the issue and show different perspectives of Radio Reporting and shared the OPC OPC Governor and former Brunswick the migrant group that Americans could award for Best Radio and TV Report- Group partner and Wall Street reporter empathize with. Before the talk, Driver ing from Abroad in the same year for Sarah Lubman is joining Japanese said she hoped to “portray what migra- reporting from Vietnam. He also won a telecommunications giant Softbank tion and the border look like firsthand, 1975 Lowell Thomas Award as part of Group Corp. as partner. Lubman spent and to shed light on what the real dangers a team from ABC News. v her time at Brunswick specializing in are in the era of misinformation.” Driver telecom, media and technology sec- spent the last two years reporting on the tors, and providing counsel on trans- ground at the U.S.-Mexico border. February-March 2019 7 PRESS FREEDOM UPDATE... By Farwa Zaidi Ukrainian reporter Katerina Kaplyuk it published false reports. The suspen- at Cairo International Airport on Jan. and her cameraman Boris Trotsenko sion order said that an article published 29. He was held incommunicado until were assaulted on March 6 during an on Feb. 23 reported that the Tanzanian Feb. 13, when his charges were an- interview. The two work for the investi- shilling had depreciated against the US nounced. He is charged with spreading gative news show Schemes. They went dollar and called the reports false and false news on social media. to the offices of the village council of misleading inciting mistrust and discon- Chabany, south of Kiev, to interview an tent with the government. Conditions for The Liberian parliament’s press office official for an investigation into the pri- journalists in Tanzania have deteriorated revoked press credentials for four jour- vate use of state lands. When they began over the past few years. At least four nalists on Feb. 19. Musa Kenneh of to question other officials, those officials newspapers have been shut down over a Truth FM, Jackson Foyofayiah of the started punching Kaplyuk and Trotsen- two-year span. newspaper Focus, and Meme Simoke ko. Trotsenko suffered a concussion and and Edward Palmer of the newspaper his camera was damaged from the at- Egyptian officials detained a New York Corruption Watch were banned from tack. Kaplyuk was unharmed. Schemes Times correspondent in Cairo for several parliament and replaced with new report- later published a report identifying the hours on Feb. 18 and sent him back to ers in the press pool. A spokesperson for attackers as the village’s deputy chair- London without explanation. The move the House said in a statement that they man of housing and communal services against David D. Kirkpatrick is part decided to remove old reporters who are and its deputy for executive issues. Kiev of a larger crackdown on press under the “redundant and repetitive in their cover- police have launched an investigation. administration of President Abdel Fattah age” and add new reporters in an effort to el-Sisi. Press freedom watchers say lack improve coverage of parliament. Congolese TV reporter Steeve of response to the crackdown from the Mwanyo Iwewe was sentenced to United States has emboldened the gov- The OPC condemned the arrest of twelve months in prison on a charge ernment to take stronger action against journalist Maria Ressa by Filipino of insulting provincial governor Bobo Western news organizations. Kirkpatrick authorities on cyber libel charges on Boloko Bolumbu on March 1. He was was the Cairo bureau chief for the Times Feb 13. Ressa was taken into custody also fined 200 dollars. Iwewe was ar- from 2011 to 2015. by the National Bureau of Investigation rested on Feb. 27 and convicted just two over charges filed by the Philippine days later. He’d been covering a protest Meanwhile, Egyptian journalist Department of Justice. It involves a held by local environmental department Ahmed Gamal Ziada has been in May 2012 story about the drug trade employees to demand operating funds. detention for more than a month. He and human trafficking, which was writ- An aide to Bolumbu claimed that the had returned to Egypt and was arrested ten four months before the government TV channel repeatedly makes “insulting comments about prominent people in the Iranian Journalist Detention in US Turns Tables province.”

by Farwa Zaidi Sudanese journalist Osman Mirghani, editor-in-chief of the independent news- Marzieh Hashemi, an Iranian American journalist, was detained by US paper Al-Tayar, was arrested by agents of the National Intelligence and Security authorities while she was traveling to visit her sick brother in St. Louis, Service on Feb. 22 and is still being Missouri this January. Hashemi is the first ever Iranian-American journalist detained in an unknown location. Mir- to face detention in the United States. She spent ten days in custody, during ghani was arrested shortly after he was which there were global protests for her release. Press freedom advocates and interviewed on the Abu Dhabi based Sky prominent news outlets covered the story, expressing concern for Hashemi News Arabia Network, where he dis- and demanding a reason for her detainment. cussed ongoing protests in Sudan. In the interview, Mirghani said that the protests Though it was not disclosed at first, a judge soon unsealed her federal court could prompt the removal of President order, revealing that she was arrested to be deposed as a material witness in Omar al-Bashir from office. Earlier in an unspecified criminal case. There were no criminal charges against her, and the day before his arrest, al-Bashir had yet she was held in detention for ten straight days. Legal scholars and Muslim already declared a state of emergency in civil rights activists said such material witness laws are questionable and response to nationwide protests. often abused. After her release, Hashemi said during a press conference that these laws are used against black people and Muslims across the West. Authorities in Tanzania imposed a sev- en-day publishing ban on the privately- While many American journalists have been detained in Iran for their owned newspaper The Citizen. The reporting, this was the first time the roles were reversed. Her detention information services department, which put the Committee to Protect Journalists in the rare position of calling on oversees newspaper licenses, temporar- American officials to explain her arrest. She says she and her work were ily suspended the paper’s publication disrespected constantly while she was detained. license on Feb. 27 on accusations that

February-March 2019 8 9 enacted the Cybercrime Prevention Act. Roots FM, a privately-owned radio MURDERS In a statement, the OPC joined other station in Monrovia, has been victim to Two Afghani journalists, Shafiqullah human rights groups in calling for the two attacks in less than two weeks. The Arya and Rahimullah Rahmani, country to “release her immediately and second attack, on Feb. 10, forced the sta- were murdered in Taloqan on Feb. 5. end its longstanding campaign of intimi- tion to go off air. Two gunmen stole two The two were shot and killed by two dation and harassment against Ressa and and other equipment after threatening unidentified men who entered the of- Rappler, the online news site that she technicians. The station is often critical fice of Radio Hamsada during a live founded.” of Liberia’s president George Weah, program. Arya, who was 28, was a and many believe this is the reason for journalist who had worked at the radio The Reporters Without Borders repre- the multiple attacks. During the first at- station for six years. Rahmani, 26, was sentative in Turkey, Erol Onderoglu, tack, gunmen had cut transmitter cables. a presenter who had worked there for is facing up to fourteen years in prison Roots FM is owned by Henry Costa, two years. In 2018, Afghanistan was along with two colleagues. Onderoglu a regular critic of the President on his rated the deadliest country for journal- and his colleagues were accused of morning program The Costa Show. ists, according to the CPJ. spreading “terrorist propaganda” and “condoning and inciting crime.” The Two Ugandan journalists, BBC producer Mexican radio presenter Jesus Ramo court is expected to issue its verdict Mohamed Kassim and cameraman Rodriguez was shot and murdered on April 14. The trial has been going Godfrey Badebye, were arrested on on Feb. 9. Rodriguez had worked for on for almost two years. Their lawyer Feb. 6 while doing an undercover inves- almost 20 years for local Radio Oye maintains that their only “crime” was tigation into drug trafficking in Uganda. 99.9 FM, where he was the host of a showing support for the Turkish news- The two were in the capital, Kampala, program called “Nuestra Region Hoy.” paper Ozgur Gundem. The three were while investigating a suspected theft of He was killed around 7:00 a.m. in a arrested after participating in a solidar- drugs by government employees from restaurant located in the Hotel Ramos ity campaign back in 2016 where they, public health centers when they were ar- in the state of Tabasco. According to along with 50 others, symbolically took rested with their fixer and driver. Police the Tabasco Hoy newspaper, Rodriguez turns being the newspaper’s “editor for issued a statement saying that they had was having breakfast with businessman a day.” The newspaper was later shut arrested five suspects, including two and former mayor Armin Marin Suri, down. Turkey currently holds the global journalists, for “illegal possession of the hotel’s manager, and another guest record for most professional journalists classified drugs,” which is punishable by when a gunman walked in, fired several in prison. up to five years in prison and a fine of shots at Rodriguez, and then left. He 477 Euros (about $535). was rushed to a hospital and died a few Mexican journalist Martin Valtierra hours later. Local and federal authori- Garcia was assaulted on Jan. 29. He A death threat was made against the staff ties believe that his murder was possi- was beaten by two unknown assailants at the privately-owned Serbian TV sta- bly linked to his work as a journalist. outside his home in Comundu. This tion N1TV. The station received a letter was the second attack on a journalist in on Feb. 4 from someone threatening Mexican radio station director Rafael Mexico within the span of one week. to kill its journalists and their families, Murua Manriquez was murdered and to blow up its office. The letter was in the northern state of Baja California Egyptian TV presenter Mohamed al- signed “Belgrade Veterans of the 1999 Sur. His body was found on Jan. 20 near Gheiti was sentenced to a year in pris- War,” which is a Serbian war veteran an expressway. According to reports, on and a fine of 3,000 Egyptian pounds association. The president of the as- Murua was targeted by threats several (about $170) on charges of promoting sociation denied that his group had any times in recent years. Since 2017, he’d homosexuality and inciting debauchery. involvement. The day after the station been enrolled in a protection program The charges are a result of an August received the letter, police arrested a pos- sanctioned by the Federal Mechanism 2018 interview in which al-Gheiti sible suspect. Executive producer of the for the Protection of Human Rights De- interviewed a gay man about his rela- station, Igor Bozic, told Balkan Insight fenders and Journalists. A family mem- tionships and his prior activity as a sex that the letter was sent the same day ber said that she was last in contact with worker. He also interviewed a journalist that Serbian President Aleksander Vucic Murua in the evening of Jan. 19. At 2:00 who had posed as a gay man on the app described N1TV as “anti-government.” a.m. The same family member was told Grindr to learn more about the commu- Earlier on Feb. 4, Vucic had said that that he’d been abducted. The identities nity. Egypt’s Supreme Media Regulatory “authorities are being attacked by N1 of the family member and whoever in- Council suspended al-Gheiti’s show television 24 hours a day.” N1TV regu- formed them of the abduction have been for two weeks following the interview. larly covers anti-government protests in withheld for their safety. Murua was as- Although Egypt does not have formal Serbia. signed protective measures in 2017 after laws against homosexuality, members of he received threatening messages from the LGBTQ+ community are routinely an alleged member of a criminal gang. harassed by authorities for “inciting de- The threats focused on his reporting on a bauchery.” Al-Gheiti is in the process of local criminal case, and continued until filing an appeal. his death. v

February-March 2019 9 9 NEW BOOKS By Farwa Zaidi UPCOMING MEDIA SOVIET UNION EVENTS he global rise of “fake news” and n April 26, 1986, an explosion “alternative facts” has been weaponized rocked Reactor Number Four at the Tamong those who want to manipulate Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station, media and public perception. Cailin O’Connor O sparking the world’s worst nuclear disaster. It and James Owen Weatherall, both professors has been thirty years since the incident, but the OPC of logic and philosophy at the University of real story behind the explosion has long been California, Irvine, examine this phenomenon shrouded in mystery, secrecy, and misinfor- ANNUAL in their new book The Misinformation Age: mation. Journalist Adam Higginbotham has How False Ideas Spread [Yale University uncovered many of these secrets in his new AWARDS DINNER Press, December 2018]. The authors dissect book, Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold the ways that stories are viewed, how they Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster are presented to the public, and why certain [Simon and Schuster, February 2019]. 6:00 p.m. stories gain more momentum than others. Through hundreds of hours of interviews The two “philosophers of science” argue conducted over the course of ten years, Hig- Cipriani 25 Broadway that particular social factors contribute to the ginbotham has tried to get to the bottom of April 18 spread and persistence of false beliefs. They what led to the nuclear explosion. He also write that the perception and spread of stories combed through letters, memoirs, and docu- has less to do with individual psychology than ments from declassified archives to recon- the environment we live in. The Misinformation struct the disaster’s timeline. The men and Book Night: Age dives into recent examples of high-profile women who witnessed the incident firsthand disputes about the validity of stories such as were still able to recount the moments leading Jason Rezaian’s climate change or the size of crowds at inaugura- up to the explosion. Their accounts, along ‘Prisoner’ tions. The authors conclude that the stories you with the extensive documentation, provide 6:00 p.m. believe depend most on the people you know vivid details of a harrowing and compelling and are surrounded by. narrative. Club Quarters O’Connor and Weatherall argue that in order The explosion in Chernobyl not only to fight misinformation effectively, it’s crucial changed the lives of the people there but April 24 to understand social forces behind belief in false changed the world’s perception of many news. The authors applied sociological models things. Scientists began to view nuclear power Tiananmen: to track how misinformation spreads and how and the science behind it differently, and to facts get misrepresented in the public sphere. better understand potential effects of nuclear Does It Reveal Allan M. Brandt of Harvard University power on the planet’s delicate ecology. Hig- China’s Future? wrote that the authors “offer a critically im- ginbotham argues that the event also contrib- portant philosophical defense of evidence, uted to the unraveling of the Soviet Union, 6:30 p.m. facts, and above all, the truth.” for which Chernobyl was a big political and This marks the first author credit financial wound. It cost a total of around $18 Club Quarters in mass-market books for O’Connor. billion and bankrupted an already failing Weatherall is also the author of the New York economy. May 9 Times bestseller The Physics of Wall Street. The explosion in Chernobyl was not kept Both writers are members of the Institute for secret, but the Soviets kept tight control Mathematical Behavioral Science. v over actions leading up to and following the disaster. Higginbotham attempts to uncover the mysteries, while revealing human resilience and ingenuity of residents in the Chernobyl’s vast area of effect. Higginbotham is a former US correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine and editor-in-chief of The Face. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, and Smithsonian. v

February-March 2019 10 Meet the OPC Members: Andre Borges Q&A With Andre Borges

ndre borges is a news the dna webdesk opened up, I went in the moment of what I’m doing and production manager, video talking about all those things immedi- not worry about the email I haven’t Aproducer, and social news ately. It was then that they realised that replied to or the shoot I have next reporter for BuzzFeed, based in a position like that would be beneficial month. (This rarely happens tbh, but Mumbai, India. He previously worked to what was at the time a strictly news- such is the job.) for the newspaper Dna India from based organisation. And it worked out 2013 to 2014, covering entertainment, really well for everyone involved. The Hardest story: I co-handled the film, television, literature, theater and more I reported about things from that production and ideation of an episode culture, and served as film critic for sphere, the more I knew I loved it. of BuzzFeed’s Netflix show “Follow the site. Which has led me to what I currently This” and pre-production for that was hell. Everything kept falling through, do, creating videos on political, social, Hometown: Mumbai. and to even get information vetted and cultural issues and happenings in was annoying because it was Beauty India. Standards in Bollywood. Education: Masters in English Litera- ture, Mumbai University. Major challenge as a journalist: Journalism heroes: John Oliver, I think vetting a story properly. Not Ravish Kumar, Dhruv Rathee, Languages you speak: English, something that’s happened on the Johnny Harris, Carlos Maza and Faye Hindi. internet (although that’s hard too) but D’Souza. like for breaking news, scoops, etc. First job in journalism: I worked at There’s so much fake news here, peo- Dream job: To have a John Oliver- type show, speaking about the things a news organisation called dna India, ple don’t want to talk about influential that occur in India. and I was the pop culture editor. If politicians and actors, and the lines are we’re talking about first ever thing, so murky in terms of the law. Favorite quote: “Show, Don’t Tell.” then I interned with the Mumbai Mirror, working on their city page Best journalism advice received: Places you’re most eager to visit: “Unwind,” which presented things “Don’t be afraid to take a stand. Don’t Japan, Comic-Con, Iceland and New around the city, things to do, weekend be intimidated by the man.” It didn’t Orleans. getaways, etc. have to rhyme, but I paraphrased it. Most common mistake you’ve seen: Countries reported from: India Worst experience as a journalist: Trying to be first in breaking When I received death threats after something. When and why did you join the writing a story about the “Curse of OPC? I joined in late 2017. I joined Aaron Ramsey” when Paul Walker Place you most want to return to: because of the wide network the OPC died. [There is an internet meme say- Europe. has, and to be able to make connec- ing every time the Arsenal Football tions in the field across borders. Club player scores a goal, a public Twitter handle: @borges v figure dies.] But also I HATE when What first sparked your interest I need to interview someone for an in pop culture reporting? hour, and my whole day goes. Want to add to the OPC’s collection I’ve always been a fan of Western of Q&As with members? Please pop-culture, comic books and all When traveling, you like to… contact [email protected]. things nerdy, so when a position on Mostly disconnect. Try and stay in

February-March 2019 11 40 West 45th Street New York, NY 10036 USA Phone 212.626.9220 Email: [email protected] opcofamerica.org

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