Here are some of the panels put together by DC Pro Chapter members. There are more, but this gives you a sampling.
Visit the MediaFest22 site for the whole schedule, which is still having sessions added.
FROM CELIA WEXLER, SPJ DC PRO BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEMBER:
Thursday, October 27 1:30 p.m.
Elections in a Time of Turmoil: What Every Journalist Needs to Know
Jeanette Senecal
Jeanette Senecal is the senior director of Mission Impact for the League of Women Voters. For over 20 years, she’s protected voters’ rights, mobilized voters from traditionally underrepresented communities, and supported free, fair, and accessible elections. Jeanette leads the award-winning VOTE411.org website and initiatives such as the Democracy Truth Project.
Shannon Jankowski
Shannon Jankowski is a staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, providing amicus support for journalists and news organizations. She works on matters involving access to courts and records, defamation, anti-SLAPP motions, newsgathering torts, and other First Amendment issues, including reporters’ rights to cover elections.
Liz Howard
Liz Howard serves as senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. She previously served as the deputy commissioner of elections in Virginia. Howard regularly comments for television, radio, and print media on issues relating to election administration and election security and has testified before Congress and several state legislatures.
The midterms are just days away. But this year, more is at stake than control of Congress. Our democracy hangs in the balance. Since 2021, two dozen states enacted laws to suppress the vote or permit interference in elections. More than a third of voters believe the 2020 election was rigged, and droves of experienced poll workers have quit, weary of harassment. Three election experts will offer news you can use on recent changes to state election laws, efforts to help citizens who face problems on election day and the rights of journalists to cover what happens at the polls.
FROM DAN KUBISKE AND THE SPJ INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HE CO-CHAIRS:
Friday, October 28 1:30 p.m.
Safety in the Field: Physical and Digital Concerns
Alison Macrina, Library Freedom Project
Alison Macrina is the founder and director of Library Freedom Project and has been a volunteer with The Tor Project since 2014. She works with librarians to help make privacy mainstream in local communities, focusing on how the impacts of surveillance are felt the most along racial and economic lines.
Safety is of the utmost importance for journalists, both physically and digitally. Learn how to prepare for an assignment, gain first-hand knowledge of how to prepare risk assessments and how to be digitally secure and protect yourself as a journalist. “
Saturday, October 29 9 a.m.
Covering Press Freedom as News
Dan Kubiske
Dan Kubiske is the co-chair of the SPJ International Community. He is a freelance journalist who has worked in Mexico, Jamaica, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Honduras. He is also an active member of the Washington, DC, Professional SPJ, currently serving as its treasurer.
Jessica Jerreat
Currently the VOA Press Freedom Editor. Jerreat has worked for press freedom organizations and international news outlets such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and The Times of London. Prior to joining VOA, Jerreat was senior editor at CPJ, where she edited of global censorship and attacks on the press.
Press freedom is vital to a functioning society. News organizations should approach this topic in the same way they report on economics, politics and sports. This session will focus on how some news organizations look at press freedom as a beat. It will also include a discussion on how local reporters can do the same.
Saturday, October 29 2:30 p.m.
Threats to Journalists in Mexico and Why It Matters
Dan Kubiske
Dan Kubiske is the co-chair of the SPJ International Community. He is a freelance journalist who has worked in Mexico, Jamaica, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Honduras. He is also an active member of the Washington, DC, Professional SPJ, currently serving as its treasurer.
Katherine Corcoran
Former Associated Press journalist and bureau chief who worked in Mexico and Latin America for nine years. She is the author of the upcoming book In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Coverup and the True Cost of Silencing the Press.
Cristina Caicedo Smit
She covers crime, a particularly risky beat for journalists in Mexico. She produced two animated reports on threats to Mexican journalists for Voice of America Press Freedom website. She is a graduate of the Universidad del Norte Barranquilla in Colombia, and worked for Telemundo before joining Voice of America
Vicente Calderon
He is a well-respected journalist in Tijuana who founded Tijuana Press, an independent news site https://tijuanapress.com/. He has worked with major US news organizations — at great risk to himself — to tell the story of violence against society in Mexico.
Mexico is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. Brave media workers in Mexico have pushed forward despite threats to their lives and families. As in the United States, when local journalism fails, government corruption and malfeasance increases and the very structure of a democratic society collapses, along with press freedom. The panelists will explore how the threats from government and criminal elements are weakening the Mexican democracy and how that failure can affect the safety of journalists everywhere.
FROM KATHRYN FOXHALL AND THE SPJ FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COMMITTEE:
Saturday, October 29 2:30 p.m.
Obstruction of Reporting Through PIO Controls and Other Means: Responding to the Controls on Free Speech and Free Press
- Haisten Willis, Reporter, Washington Examiner, and Chair, SPJ Freedom of Information Committee Haisten Willis is a reporter for the Washington Examiner and chair of the Society of Professional Journalists Freedom of Information Committee.
- Cinnamon Janzer, Freelance Journalist (@cinnamonjanzer) Cinnamon Janzer is a freelance journalist. She has written for CJR about both the obstruction of reporting through PIOs in the Minneapolis Police Department a year before George Floyd was murdered as well as speech controls placed on CDC employees in the early pandemic days.
- Kathryn Foxhall, Freelance Reporter and Vice Chair, SPJ Freedom of Information Committee (@KathF) Kathryn Foxhall, a reporter of over 40 years, is a point person for opposing gag rules in agencies, businesses, etc., that ban employees and others from speaking to reporters without notifying authorities. Last year she received the Wells Key, the highest honor for an SPJ member, specifically for that work.
- Glen Nowak, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication Glen Nowak, Ph.D., is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Previously, he was at the U.S. CDC for 14 years, including six years as the agency’s Director of Media Relations.
One of the most damaging threats to free press is the trend over three to four decades in government, businesses and other institutions banning employees and others from speaking to journalists. Sometimes bans are total. Sometimes they prohibit contact without notification of authorities, often through public information offices. They damage our reporting while we tend to think what we get is all there is. What are journalists’ responsibilities to oppose these restrictions? How can we build skills for dealing with blockages and push back on the policy level against the existence of the restrictions on national, state and local levels?
FROM RANDY SHOWSTACK, IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT OF SPJ DC PRO:
Friday, October 28, 1:30 p.m.
Covering Climate Change: What Journalists Need to Know
Bobby Magill, moderator
Bobby Magill covers water, public lands and climate change for Bloomberg Law in Washington, D.C. He covered the last three United Nations climate change conferences for Bloomberg. He was previously an energy reporter for Climate Central and reported for various newspapers in Colorado and New
Mexico. He is a past national president of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Marianne Lavelle
Marianne Lavelle is a reporter for Inside Climate News. She has covered environment, science, law, and business in Washington, D.C. for more than two decades. Lavelle previously spent four years as online energy news editor and writer at National Geographic.
Emily Holden
Emily Holden is editor-in-chief of Floodlight, a nonprofit investigative climate newsroom that collaborates with local and national outlets. Before founding Floodlight in early 2021, Emily was a D.C.-based environment reporter for about a decade, including at the Guardian, Politico, E&E News and CQ Roll Call.
Justin Worland
Justin Worland is a Washington D.C.-based senior correspondent for TIME covering climate change and the intersection of policy, politics and society.
Climate change is the story of our era, touching every beat in journalism. It’s an environmental story, a justice story, political story, a business story — it’s even a sports story. Both local and global, climate change is the story of the century. Learn from some of the nation’s leading environmental reporters about the ins and outs of how to provide solid, accurate and creative coverage about climate change from different angles.