Tickets
The Summit itself is free to attend and largely virtual.
The Hollywood Creative Lab is virtual and free to attend.
Tickets are needed to watch whistlebower-related films, which are shown daily
TICKET AVAILABLE: Click HERE
Overall website
Partial Schedule
Monday July 25
9:00 Plenary: Frank Serpico, former New York City detective
10:00 Continued systemic discrimination at U.S. Department of Agriculture
11:00 Congressional year of truth for whistleblower legislation (Government Accountability Project)
12:00 The perils of public information officers (Society of Professional Journalists – DC Chapter)
1:00 Global guardianship abuse
Tuesday July 26
9:00 Government whistleblowing, scientific integrity and the environment (PEER — Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)
10:00 The EEOC needs Rehabilitation
11:00 Working with the Office of Special Council (Government Accountability Project)
12:00 Guilty of journalism: The political case against Julian Assange (Project Censored)
1:00 Righting the wrongs of a ‘shadow government’ (Justice Integrity Project)
Wednesday July 27
9:00 Hollywood Pitch Lab (Day 1)
10:00 Screenplay contest announcement
Thursday July 28
9:00 Hollywood Pitch Lab (Day 2)
10:00 Breakout sessions
Friday July 29 – being held on Capitol Hill
9:00 Closing Plenary
10:00 Hollywood creative lab pitch contest (online)
10:00 Martha Mitchell in memoriam
11:00 Detailing the whistleblower story on film (African American Women in Cinema)
12:00 Working more effectively with Congress (Government Accountability Project)
From the National Whistleblowers Center:
National Whistleblower Day is an annual celebration commemorating the contributions of whistleblowers around the world who have bravely stepped forward to expose waste, fraud, and abuse. This year’s celebration begins Thursday, July 28th and runs three days through Saturday July 30th.
This year’s celebration will be an three-day virtual event featuring a wide range of speeches from whistleblowers, policy-makers, and advocates as well as a series of panels on pressing whistleblower issues.
Register HERE.
SPJ DC Pro Chapter’s return to having an annual baseball outing to Nats Park
NATS vs. CARDINALS
Take yourself out to a ballgame with SPJ DC Pro, and help support the SDX Foundation of Washington, D.C., journalism scholarship fund at the same time!!
It’s a tradition that has been on hiatus, like a lot of other things, during the COVID-19 pandemic. But let’s see each other in person again, with this outdoor event as a great excuse to get together!
There are 14 tickets reserved for this event — Friday evening game is against the St. Louis Cardinals on July 29 at 7:05 p.m.Be there in the stands watching in return for a donation to the SDX Foundation of Washington, D.C., the education arm of the DC Pro Chapter, which awards scholarships to students enrolled in journalism programs at Washington-area colleges and universities.
TICKET INFO: The tickets are in Section 319, which is along the first baseline, upstairs. Retail price for these tickets is $37 each. Suggested donation is for $25 each.
Former DC Pro Chapter board member and current Acting Treasurer of the SDX Foundation of Washington, D.C., Bill McCloskey — also a Nats fan and season ticket holder — is in charge of this fun event, and the chapter board has thanked him in advance for reviving what had become a summer tradition.
INSTRUCTIONS FROM BILL McCLOSKEY:
1) The ticket purchaser/user must download the MLB Ballpark app to their wireless phone, since paper tickets are a thing of the past.
2) I can then forward the ticket to the user’s phone. These are better seats than I have been able to obtain in the past.
3) Checks should be made out to SDX-DC. They can be mailed to this address:
Bill McCloskey – Treasurer SDX-DC
4709 Overbrook Road
Bethesda, Maryland 20816-3029
Bill McCloskey phone: 301-652-7583
All of the price you pay for your ticket price will be donated directly to SDX-DC’s scholarship fund, to be awarded to undergraduates at local colleges and universities who have expressed a firm intention to make journalism their career upon graduation.
Incidentally, Bill is in the photo below, in the gray T-shirt and matching beard. The photo, in which he is talking to DC Pro Chapter Hall of Fame Committee Chair Steve Taylor, on the right in the red shirt, was taken several years ago at a chapter baseball outing.
Contact McCloskey with questions at bmcclos325@aol.com. Or email DC Pro Chapter Corresponding Secretary Amy Fickling at spjdcchapter@gmail.com.
Sponsored by the The Free Speech Project at Georgetown University.
In 2010, Julian Assange was thrown into the spotlight after his Wikileaks website published classified materials obtained from soldier Chelsea Manning – including footage of a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed at least 11 civilians. Indicted in the United States on 17 espionage charges that carry a maximum prison sentence of 175 years, he has emerged as a divisive figure. Once he came out of nearly seven years of hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange was arrested and has now been cleared for extradition by the British authorities; but he has appealed that decision. Some say he is being unfairly punished for exposing war crimes, while others contend he damaged diplomacy and harmed U.S. national security.
How should the international community handle Assange? What are the global implications of prosecuting someone for unveiling uncomfortable truths? Is he criminally charged for doing what eminent correspondents around the world do every day?
Join the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University and the Future of the Humanities Project, a joint endeavor of Georgetown University and Blackfriars Hall at Oxford, for the next monthly program in the ongoing virtual series, Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues, on Tuesday, September 27, 2022.
Panelists
Daniel Ellsberg achieved international recognition for his disclosure in 1971 of the top secret Pentagon study concerning U.S. decision-making in Vietnam, which came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. Their exposure in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and 17 other newspapers led President Richard Nixon to sue in federal court to halt publication. That effort failed, as did the espionage and other criminal charges against Ellsberg, which were dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct. The case led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation as he faced impeachment. Ellsberg has spoken out on behalf of Assange, Edward Snowden, and others who revealed American government secrets in order to influence policy.
Naomi Colvin is the United Kingdom-Ireland Project Director at Blueprint for Free Speech, an international non-governmental organization that works to promote the right to freedom of expression. She previously worked on advocacy campaigns for whistleblowers and hacktivists. She is particularly interested in how digital speech intersects with criminal law and is currently working on projects concerning whistleblowing and strategic lawsuits in Europe.
Michael Scott (moderator) is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college adviser for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior adviser to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously was the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University.
Sanford J. Ungar (moderator), president emeritus of Goucher College, is director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University, which documents challenges to free expression in American education, government, and civil society. Director of the Voice of America under President Bill Clinton, he was also dean of the American University School of Communication and is a former co-host of “All Things Considered” on NPR. Ungar’s book, The Papers & The Papers: An Account of the Legal and Political Battle over the Pentagon Papers, originally published in 1972, won the George Polk Award.
Register for the free session HERE.
Natalia Viana is a co-founder and co-director of Brazilian investigative journalism Agência Pública, founded in 2011 by women reporters, and has worked on ICIJ investigations Panama Papers, and Evicted and Abandoned.
Part of the Reuters Institute Global Journalism Seminars series.
Register for the Zoom program HERE.
Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues — Can Local Media Help Save Democracy?
Register for free HERE.
As populism and political turmoil continue to rise throughout the world, and especially in western democracies, what is the evolving role of the media in strengthening democratic institutions and upholding traditional values? When charismatic leaders scorn nationally known journalists as “enemies of the people,” do local media occupy an increasingly important place? Are these grass-roots institutions viable in the long term? How might they have influenced recent events in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy? What are their prospects in the United States?
Join us Monday, October 17th, 2022, at 11:00 am EDT / 4:00 pm BST, for another installment of Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues
This event is co-sponsored by the Free Speech Project (Georgetown University) and the Future of the Humanities Project (Georgetown University and Blackfriars Hall and Campion Hall, Oxford). It is part of the ongoing event series Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues.
Featured:
- Stuart Allan is professor of journalism and communication in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. Much of his research revolves around the changing dynamics of war, conflict, and crisis reporting, including both professional and citizen reportage. His book publications include Citizen Witnessing: Revisioning Journalism in Times of Crisis and the second edition of The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism.
- Jim Brady, a pioneer in digital news, is vice president for journalism programs at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. He previously led brands such as washingtonpost.com and Digital First Media, and launched a company that built online local news sites in three U.S. cities. He has held a wide range of executive roles, including executive editor of the online version of The Washington Post and head of news and sports for America Online. He is past president of the Online News Association.
- Maria Power is a Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. A graduate of the University of London, she is the author of two books on religion in Northern Ireland, From Ecumenism to Community Relations: Inter-Church Relationships in Northern Ireland, and Catholic Social Teaching and Theologies of Peace in Northern Ireland: Cardinal Cahal Daly and the Pursuit of the Peaceable Kingdom published last year. Maria is the editor of Building Peace in Northern Ireland.
- Michael Scott (moderator) is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college adviser for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior adviser to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously was the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University.
- Sanford J. Ungar (moderator), president emeritus of Goucher College, is director of the nonpartisan Free Speech Project at Georgetown University, which documents challenges to free expression in American education, government, and civil society. Director of the Voice of America under President Bill Clinton, he was also dean of the American University School of Communication and is a former co-host of “All Things Considered” on NPR.
Learn more about the candidates for national SPJ offices.
Region 1 Coordinator Chris Vaccaro is hosting a forum with national candidates on Thursday, October 20, at 8 pm ET.
Chat will be open and there will be time for questions.
Registration information HERE.
Sponsored by Voice of America.
11:00 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, October 25, 2022
As the number of displaced persons and refugees continues to multiply, it is important to provide more news coverage of forced migration. But it is just as urgent that public service media take steps to reach these populations with news, information and educational programming. VOA is among the organizations providing targeted media content to some key refugee populations.
- What can NGOs and journalists who cover conflicts and crises tell us about the lives of refugees and displaced persons who are on the move and separated from their communities?
- Is it possible to reach more displaced persons with information than we are now?
- Is it a matter of innovation, more resources or both?
As VOA celebrates its 80th anniversary, please join Acting VOA Director Yolanda López and a distinguished panel for a virtual discussion of Reaching and Engaging Refugee and Displaced Communities
Introduction: Yolanda Lopez, Acting VOA Director
Moderator: Gary Butterworth, VOA Refugee Program Manager
Panel:
- Kasim Abdurehim, VOA International Journalist
- Lesley Bourns, Vice President, Humanitarian Programs, Sesame Workshop
- Paul Dillon, Director, International Organization for Migration, Media and Communications Division
- Biliny Manyang, Contributor, Kakuma News Reflector