CNN will air Good Night, and Good Luck live on Saturday, June 7 at 7pm ET across CNN, CNN International and streaming on CNN.com. This is the penultimate performance of the Broadway play by George Clooney and Grant Heslov.
The play follows the plot line of the 2005 movie, starring David Strathairn as journalist Edward R. Murrow and directed by Clooney. We watch Murrow and his team assemble the material for his famous March 9, 1954 report on Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy and the political situation at the time. The play opens and closes with Murrow’s famous October 15, 1958 speech to the then-RTNDA (now RTDNA). The whole speech is well worth reading.
The CNN broadcast offers a great opportunity for us to gather friends and colleagues for watch parties. They don’t have to be anything big or overwhelming. Invite your neighbors and a few colleagues. Make it potluck or just call in for a few pizzas and watch the play.
The next gathering of the SPJ DC freelance group will be a no-host happy hour at 6 p.m., June 26 at the National Press Club. Please be sure to let me know if you plan to attend so we can have your name on the NPC list at the door.
Offered by New England First Amendment Coalition
The NEFC provides reporters, watchdogs and other curious community members the knowledge they can use immediately in news gathering, data collection, storytelling and other areas of journalism and First Amendment law.
The lessons are provided in a 30-minute format to accommodate the demanding schedules faced by many working in New England newsrooms. The program is free and open to the public.
Registration for each lesson is required.
Immigration Reporting 101 session led by Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio
The Boston Globe
Sign up and buy tickets HERE.
The #SaveVOA Benefit Concert is a cultural-charity event featuring musicians from the VOA family. As the government seeks to end international broadcasting, staff at media networks like Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks are facing serious hardships.
Many have suddenly lost their income, their health insurance, and even visas that allowed them to work and live safely in the United States. Some are now at risk of reprisals if forced to return to their home countries. All proceeds from the #SaveVOA Benefit Concert will go to the USAGM Employee Association, a registered nonprofit providing help with urgent medical bills, legal assistance, and other unforeseen needs for journalists who have spent their careers speaking truth to power.
Tickets do not include food or drinks, which will be available for purchase at the venue. No outside food or drink or illegal substances are permitted. Venue is wheelchair-accessible. Carpooling encouraged!
The USAGM Employee Association is a registered non-profit organization. Our EIN is 83-2456434. Any related inquiries can be sent to the Executive Committee at chair@usagmassociation.org
Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1vpoDFygTKj0cyKqKHwIkFlHyui7hPZ9B75Gf58F89mrZkA/viewform
Join the Press Freedom Team on Tuesday, October 7 at 6 p.m. for an upcoming reception at the National Press Club!
National Press Club members and Press Freedom Center staff will be joined by Alsu Kurmasheva, who will discuss her work as a press freedom advocate, and provide updates on recent press freedom developments in Europe and Russia.
This reception is designed to bring the Club community together and celebrate the vital work of the Press Freedom Center. Don’t miss a chance to learn more about how the Press Freedom Center is advancing press freedom initiatives through personal engagement and meaningful intervention – and how Club members can support and amplify that work.
Book tickets HERE.
Alsu Kurmasheva is an award-winning journalist and editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), where she has reported extensively on cultural and human rights issues in Russia’s Volga-Ural region. She first joined RFE/RL in 1998 as a radio program moderator and has since built a career covering the experiences of ethnic minorities in Russia. Her reporting has also focused on gender issues, with in-depth investigations into domestic violence and women’s rights.
In October 2023, Kurmasheva was detained in Russia and charged with spreading “false” information about the Russian military, a charge linked to her alleged role in distributing a book featuring accounts from Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine. Held for more than nine months, in July 2024, Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. In August 2024, she was released as part of a prisoner exchange that also saw the return of fellow American journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Following her release from detention in Russia, Alsu Kurmasheva has emerged as a vocal advocate for press freedom, drawing on her own experience of imprisonment to highlight the risks journalists face in authoritarian regimes.
Last year, shortly after her release from Russian prison, Alsu was interviewed by the SPJ International Community along with Daniel Fenster, who was held by the Myanmar government in 2021. The two talked about how they dealt with their imprisonment for “doing journalism” and why so many authoritarian governments fear free and independent news reporting.
You can view the interview below.
Join Freedom Forum for a free, family-friendly festival to celebrate the everyday freedoms all of us enjoy and the vital role they play in American life — all brought to you by the First Amendment.
Come for free performances and activities on The Wharf’s District Pier, including:
- An interactive journey to celebrate your First Amendment freedoms — and experience what life would look like if they were taken away.
- Fun, family-friendly activities, including a tote bag personalization station, caricatures, face painting and a balloon artist. First Amendment-themed giveaways, snacks, drinks and more.
More Details
VIRGINIA is for LOVERS
OCTOBER 25th, IX Art Park in Charlottesville, 6-8:30pm
Experience what only photojournalists can reveal: that beyond breaking news and daily deadlines, they capture the joy, love, tenderness, and quiet moments that reflect the humanity of our communities. A projection of uplifting images from photojournalists from around the commonwealth. This free event is brought to you by the Virginia Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Food truck and drinks available for purchase. Come celebrate something positive.
Sure this is not a DC-area event. But you can have a nice weekend in Charlottesville.
- Visit the exhibit.
- Visit Monticello.
- Visit James Madison’s home.
- Enjoy the mountain air.
Join journalists across the country for the Austin Tice Virtual 5K—a nationwide show of support for the freelance journalist abducted in Syria in 2012.
The event, taking place Nov. 8, is sponsored by the National Press Club and Press Freedom Center to spotlight freelance journalist Austin Tice who was abducted while covering Syria’s civil war in August 2012.
And you don’t have to run! You can walk or be a part of this heartfelt event virtually and through social media. Sign up to get a T-shirt!
When Syria’s dictator Bashar Al-Assad was toppled last December, then-President Joe Biden said the U.S. government believes Tice is still alive.
McDonnell Nieto del Rio joined The Boston Globe in July 2024 as an immigration reporter. At the Globe, she has reported on migrants struggling to find shelter in Massachusetts amidst the state’s housing crisis, how federal immigration policies have affected local residents, and on the impact of immigration enforcement changes on Massachusetts communities, among other issues. Previously, she worked as an immigration reporter at Documented, a nonprofit news site that covers New York City’s immigrant communities and policies that affect them. At Documented, she covered the migrant crisis in New York extensively, and published stories about the conditions in city-run shelters, the exploitation of newly-arrived migrant workers, and the effects of housing instability on migrant families. She also covered immigration detention and immigration courts. Before that, she was a national reporting fellow for the New York Times, writing about any and all national news — including COVID-19, the 2020 election, mass shootings and extreme weather events. McDonnell Nieto del Rio is a native Spanish speaker and has reported on breaking news as an intern for her hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times. She has also worked for CNN in New York and Washington D.C. She holds a bachelor’s degree in History from Williams College, and earned her master’s from Columbia Journalism School.