Adam@Home by Brian Basset

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is recruiting participants for its 2011 Scripps immigration training program, “Beyond the border: Covering the Immigration Phenomenon through Digital Media.”

ICFJ covers round trip travel, hotel stay and the one-week training in Washington, D.C.

The program is opened to journalists from English-speaking and Spanish-speaking media.

The application deadline is May 2, 2011.

Panelists will include key immigration policy makers, researchers, and advocates on different sides of the immigration debate. The program will help journalists understand that debate from legal, social, economic and political perspectives while building skills to cover this complex issue using the latest multimedia technology. Read more »

There is a reason this week (March 13-19) is Sunshine Week. Smack dab in the middle (March 16) is the birthday of James Madison, "Father of the Constitution."

It was Madison's work and political skills that first gave us the Constitution and then the Bill of Rights.

In a speech before Congress introducing the amendments, Madison sought more to adjust sections of the original Constitution rather than make amendments. But the message was the same:

That in article 1st, section 9, between clauses 3 and 4, be inserted these clauses, to wit: The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.

The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.

Fairfax City Patch has a two-part series on the FOIA filings of Clifton, Va., resident Jill Hill against the Fairfax County School District. Hill filed her request to get to the bottom of how the decision was made to close Clifton High School.

Once again proof that protecting and strengthening the freedom of information laws benefits all citizens, not just journalists. Read more »

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World

Let's face it despite the positive image of Brenda Starr, women still make up a minority in the newsrooms of the world.

So on International Women's Day, I thought I would post a few items from around the world on the current status of women in journalism. Read more »