The SPJ International Community has two leaders from The World Affairs Council for our July 28 ICTalk. We will be speaking with the CEO and President of the World Affairs Council, Bill Clifford, and the Executive Director of the Montana World Affairs Council, Chris Hyslop. We will discuss how local journalists can build stories that reflect a global connection to local issues or a local link to an international story. The organization has roots going back 100 years and connects foreign and local affairs in more than 90 cities around the United States makes foreign affairs less foreign. Register HERE

SPJ/LA to explore the give-and-take between journalists and PIOs

Government agencies bring on public information officers to make sure critical information reaches the public. But for those PIOs, can the obligation to serve their agency run counter to their responsibility to the public?

SPJ/LA will explore those and other issues on Thursday during the virtual panel “Just Doing My Job: Protecting the Agency vs. Serving the Public.”

The panel, which begins at 7 p.m.(PT), will feature journalists and public affairs experts from across the region.

The event will be moderated by Ben Davis, journalism professor at Cal State, Northridge. Appearing with him are:

• Lisa Derderian, Public Information Officer, City of Pasadena
• Susan Hirasuna, Anchor/Reporter, FOX 11
• Claudia Peschiutta, Daily News Editor, KPCC-FM
• Kerri Webb, Director of Public Information and Government Relations, El Camino College

For more information, contact Nathan Solis at njsolis@gmail.com.

To RSVP for the event, please click here by 4:00pm (PT) on Thursday, March 3.

Register HERE for this online session.

America’s public schools are coming under unusually strong attention from the general public — scrutiny communities typically rely on journalists to provide.

The issues are as disparate as masking mandates and COVID-19 testing; decisions around the spending of federal pandemic relief funds; the pros and cons of virtual vs. in-person learning; gun threats; and a rising trend of lawmakers and parents’ demanding that schoolchildren not be taught certain subjects such as human sexuality and the history of racism.

Journalists face multiple barriers, many government- or district-imposed, to covering these complex topics. Practices like filtering all interviews through public information officers seriously impairs journalists’ ability to cover these weighty subjects, while prohibiting teachers, school staff and other key education officials from sharing their stories. Add in policies that limit access to key education-related data-sets, and answering the public’s questions in a timely, thoughtful, and detailed manner becomes exceedingly difficult.

In honor of Sunshine Week, expert panelists will explore the impact of these government restrictions on press coverage of public schools and how to work around them. Produced by the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Press Club Journalism Institute, the discussion will offer strategies and tools to overcome these barriers.

Panelists include:
– Eva-Marie Ayala, Education Lab editor for The Dallas Morning News
– Frank LoMonte, professor at the University of Florida and counsel at CNN
– Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
– Moderator: Delece Smith-Barrow, education editor at POLITICO

CHAPTER MEMBERS: Mark Your Calendar for an in-person gathering for the holiday season.

Join your SPJ DC Pro colleagues Tuesday, Dec. 5, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the National Press Club.

We’ll have a private meeting room, free snacks, cash bar.  🍷🍺

More info coming later.

Join the chapter and other journalists Friday, Oct. 4, at 5 p.m. to meet with 10 foreign journalists visiting the United States under the auspices of the World Press Institute. The gathering will be in the Cosgrove Lounge on the 14th floor of the National Press Club in downtown Washington (529 14th Street NW, 20045 near Metro Center station).

The DC chapter will provide some light snacks. Beverages will be available from a server, but you’ll pay for your own order.

The visiting journalists are coming from Brazil, Bulgaria, Finland, India, Italy, Kosovo, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa and Ukraine.

The World Press Institute, founded in 1961, has provided regular opportunities for journalists from around the world to visit the U.S. and compare notes with their American counterparts.

Please sign up for the event here.

Applications and all accompanying documents must be filed by midnight.

Pertinent info on scholarships can be found HERE.

A no-agenda, no holds barred get together sponsored by the SPJ International Community. Just a chance to meet and chat.

Sign up HERE.

Come celebrate the holiday season with your fellow members of the Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. We’ll also toast the near-arrival of the 234^th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, our First Amendment birthdate.

We will provide the great New Orleans-style food — you just need to pay for anything you want to drink from the cash bar.

The Ragtime Restaurant is a 2–4-minute walk from the Court House Orange Line Metro station. You can’t get much more convenient than that.

We are aiming to grow our membership in these days when a strong, united voice from journalists committed to seeking truth and reporting it to the public is more important than ever. Bring a colleague who you think would be interested in joining.

This will be a great opportunity for chapter members to connect/re-connect, and for you to meet prospective members who may be our guests and tell them what membership means to you and why they should be part of our chapter and our mission. Spread the cheer, but also spread your enthusiasm for SPJ.

Sign up HERE to let us know you are coming.

Please note that you should respond using the form on the link above so we have your name and email address for any updates.