Transcripts For CSPAN National 20240703 : vimarsana.com

Eileen good morning, and welcome to the National Press club, the place where news happens. Im eileen oreilly, the president of the National Press club and the managing editor of standards training at axios. This morning we have a special headliners newsmaker event, featuring diane foley, the mother of journalist james foley who was murdered by isis in 2014. The Foley Foundation is announcing its new Journalist Safety Task force and will have a panel of experts discussing how to address important issues. As we all know, unfortunately, this is in dire need now as a journalists remain in harms way all around the world. The National Press club is actively working with the wall street journal to release the reporter evan gershkovich, who is being unjustly detained in a russian prison. We continue to advocate for the release of austin tice, who has been held captive in syria for more than 11 years. We have a hugely active press team here that works tirelessly to promote the freedom of the press both here and abroad. Today, we are also brutally aware that over 11 journalist and counting, im afraid, have already been killed or lost as casualties of the israelhamas war over the past nine days. We mourn the loss of each of these brave journalists. The james w. Foley Legacy Foundation works in helping journalists stay safe as they do their important work. The organization was founded by diane foley in september 2014, less than one month after jims public execution. I am a fellow alum of jim from Marquette University. I graduated before jim and did not have the pleasure of meeting him in person. But i had heard of him through our marquette networks when he was first taken by libya in 2011 and eventually released. The fact that he returned to the region so he could continue reporting on the stories that needed to be told, despite knowing directly the grave risks involved, to me, is the embodiment of moral courage, which this foundation represents. The foundations supporters are committed to ensuring the freedom of americans taken hostage overseas, and that their safety and return is a priority for america. As part of that mission, the Foley Foundation works closely with the National Press club secure the release of our two american journalists held abroad. This week, diane foley, who is currently serving as the president of the foundation, was on National News stating that civilians and innocents are being used as pawns by hamas. And expressed strongest concern about the more than 150 hostages taken. Senator Chris Van Hollen who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a statement yesterday thanking diane foley and saluting the foundations work. Van hollen says, today, we remember not only james foley, but also the risks journalists face when reporting from dangerous places to shine a light on the truth. The james Foley Foundation is a true leader in supporting this vital work, and it is in that spirit that i would especially like to thank diane foley and salute all of you for your commitment that mission. We are honored diane foley is here today, and she will give her remarks in a minute. This will be followed by a Panel Moderated by ellen shearer, who is Professor Emeritus of northwestern universitys Medill School of journalism, and ran their washington, d. C. Medill news service. Ellen is also the chairperson of the Foley Foundation. We are also honored to have panelists here from the New York Times, the voice of america, and a representative who has worked for years at the Marquette University center for peacekeeping. I wanted to thank mike smith, a reporter with Coastal Point and a fellow board member on the National Press club board of governors for arranging todays newsmaker. I also wish to thank lori russo, donna , who are the cochairs of our headliner team. Special thanks to cecily scott martin, our Events Coordinator at the club. And now, i would like us to give a warm welcome to diane foley. [applause] ms. Foley thank you, eileen, and thanks to the National Press club and all of you for taking time to be here. And for cspan for covering our news today. The Foley Foundation is deeply committed to journalist safety. We want to ensure that both aspiring journalists and freelance journalist have access to the latest in safety education, to enable them to bear witness to Current Events as safely as possible. Our signature initiatives have been the development of undergraduate and graduate School Safety curricula to embed safety curricula in all schools of journalism. That is also accessible freelance journalist. We currently have 20 journalism and communication schools who use our curriculum. Thanks to our education director tom durkin, and we also have 11 schools in lebanon thanks to our partnership with the severe foundation was translated our curriculum into arabic. We partnered with a company that provides Virtual Reality Safety Training for freelancers and journalists. We even have a session here at the National Press club recently. Dangers to journalist seem to be increasing domestically and internationally. Many journalists have already been targeted in the israelihamas conflict. So we are delighted to welcome these generous experts, who are willing to be part of a task force to help ensure that our curriculum is as timely, practical, and uptodate as it can. I would like to just introduce them. First of all, those who are not able to be with us, we have professional Kathleen Mccall right mcilroy who is the chair of journalism for the university of texas in austin. Nathan puffer, Senior Vice President of risk and resilience at dow jones. He was a veteran of the u. S. Military and is now a fellow at the center for strategic and international studies. And also hannah storm, founder and director of headlines network, who has been promoting a conversation about Mental Health and moral injury for journalists. And we are particularly delighted for those who can join us in person. We have eric phillips, Program Manager of the office of language programming for the voice of america. He is responsible for journalist safety and is a primary liaison within the United States Agency Global media, and all matters related to safety and security. Welcome, eric. We also are so delighted to welcome jason reich came down from the New York Times and he is the Vice President of corporate security. He spent years at buzzfeed as their Global Security director and is a founding board member from the culture of Safety Alliance for freelancers throughout the world. And tom durkin is here, our education director from Marquette University and ellen shearer, our board chair who was jims professor years ago and continues his legacy through our work today. We are so grateful for all of these experts and their willingness to so generously share so that our curriculum can be really useful, uptodate, and most timely. Yesterday, we had the privilege of posting the james foley freedom run at Anacostia Park here in d. C. It was one of several runs that occurred throughout the country. Even had one in paris this year. All to raise awareness about journalists like evan and austin who still remain hostages, and it to raise awareness of the risk journalists take every day. As eileen shared, senator van hollen left remarks for us, and he said that he was inspired by our advocacy for press freedom. And he is right about the journalists risks that they take just to bring us the news so that we might know what is happening across the world. So we hope that todays discussion will illuminate those risks, and we can help journalists stay safer. Thank you so much. Ellen . Ms. Shearer thank you, diane. Let me add my thanks to the National Press club for hosting this event today. It is so important to highlight this issue and need for journalist safety education, so thank you all for joining us and thank you to the National Press club. This morning we will be hearing from our members and tom about the changing landscape of risks journalists. Let me just briefly set the stage for the discussion. As diane and eileen noted, journalists put themselves in harms way to do the important job of getting the news to all of us. And journalists are sometimes deliberately targeted by governments, terrorists, criminals, and others. Of course, we are seeing this right now in israelthomas conflict as eileen mentioned israelhamas conflict as eileen mentioned. As of the first nine days of the fighting, almost a dozen journalists were killed. Two were missing. Eight injured and the shelling last week in southern lebanon killed a writers videographer and injured writers videographer and injured several other journalists. As several in a week or so. Before last week, 60 journalists have been killed so far this year. Meanwhile, there is a different and increasing threat that foreign correspondence face, wrongful detentions by hostile governments, notably russia, china, iran, and venezuela according to the Foley Foundation research. But, as we all know, it is not just conflict journalism. A correspondence were at risk these days. Earlier this year, a tv reporter in florida was shot to death while covering a homicide and has videographer was injured. Last year, Las Vegas Review journal reporter jeff gorman was jeff german was stabbed multiple times and killed outside his home. Clark county public administrator robert was arrested in the murder. German had been investigating him. During the black lives matter protests, journalists were often injured, generally not by protesters. In addition, many journalists around the country are targeted by online harassers. The list of risk goes on. The good news is that more and more news organizations like those represented on our task force and others are stepping up to the challenges posed by these risks, and nonprofits like see pj Reporters Committee for freedom of the press, the International Womens Media Foundation and the culture of Safety Alliance to name a few are providing resources for journalists to be prepared to assess risk, mitigate them with safety strategies, or determine when it is too dangerous. With that background, lets get started. Tom, why dont you start off just kind of going into a little more detail about what the Foley Foundation curriculum aims to do . Mr. Durkin sure, thank you for the question and thank you for the press club for having us for this important panel. Within months of jims murder back in 2014, ellen, who was one of jims professors created a graduate level seminar designed for conflict journalists particularly for freelancers. Obviously, that is important. We know conflict journalists will, against risks. One of the things we noticed and recognizing his it is not just conflict journalists that need to be prepared for risk. We have to start with journalists when they are young to build his habits, safety habits to make sure that journalists are learning how to be safe. The way i always think about this as i think about my sister katie who was a paramedic field chief with the chicago fire department. Her job is stabilized, but she needs to know how to do it safely. Journalists are not that different than first responders. They run towards scenes, they run towards violence, they run towards places where other people are leaving and they are there with a pen or camera. We, i feel, have a response will be to make sure journalists of the youngest age are learning how to be safe and how to build habits. We talk ellen created with a graduate level seminar and started focusing on undergraduate programs. The challenge was do you teach a class, a firstyear class or wait until they are seniors, or you embed safety into the curriculum . Our thinking what if we could gather materials, work with experts, see what students need to know, and we work with schools to start at the youngest, first year that you walk in, how to be safe, how to do a Risk Assessment, how do you interview hostile source . These things are coming up throughout their courses and the habits are developing. In that way, safety does not become some addon. It is not something extra that you do. You need to be safe to be an effective journalists. And it safety we are looking at. You are looking at the physical safety, mental safety, digital safety, and while it seems like a lot to cover, if it is offered throughout courses, i think we have a better chance of making sure that journalists have the tools to protect themselves. And i firmly believe that the best way to do it is throughout the curriculum where students are just learning this course. It is not like you need to be safe when you do this. You always need to be safe. To be honest, you can go to a School Board Meeting these days, and it can turn sideways. So, doing Risk Assessments and taking about your safety and what i can be prepared for is a habit. I know that people on the stage agree with that, and have either experienced or seen other journalists that need these tools to confront these challenges. Eric, maybe you could talk a little bit about what keeps you up at night. What are the challenges . You have a network around with world and in United States of journalists, freelancers, and staff that you have to try to protect. How do you work with them to create a culture of safety . To keep them safe . Mr. Phillips thank you very much. I want to call attention to the fact that Claire Dominguez who was a journalist and manages external partnerships for voice of america is here with me today. On behalf of my colleagues, we want to extend our thanks to diane, ellen, tom for asking us to be part of this task force. We regard this opportunity very highly and it is our hope that anything we can contribute will be of use to the foundation that you continue to build on that already robust and impressive curriculum, for sure. We have been asked to talk about some of the challenges, but we will do that but before we get to the challenges, we want to touch on it is not all bad news. There are spots of good news and i did want to share a couple with you here today. Of course, the Foley Foundation and their curriculum is the lead, it goes without saying. But there is more good news. Amanda bennett, the ceo of the u. S. Agm has stated right from the start of her administration a journal safety is a priority for u. S. Agm and all the entities that operate under u. S. Agm including voice of america. That is a big deal. Words are wonderful. Actions are better, and amanda has created the first ever journalists Safety Officer position and we are interviewing candidates for that position now. When the appointment is made, it is somebody i will interact with on a daily basis in the interest of safety. Ms. Foley tell a bit more about that position. [laughter] mr. Phillips its probably below my pay grade. The challenges are plenty, and they are growing. They are going in the nature of the challenges. They are growing in frequency. At voice of america, we have plenty of them. I think the key is what tom said. It is getting the conversation to be less of an extra box you have to check and more getting it to be habit. This is a thing that you have to be conscious of and be working on all the time as a journalist. A lot to talk about with Risk Assessment. Risk assessment cannot just be a box that you check at the office before you go off to the location for your assignment. It is something we have been working on a lot at voa in recent years. The Foley Foundation curriculum touches on this it is pretty impressive. Risk assessment continues once you get to the location of your assignment, and we thought people in israel now, and weve had to continually check in with our people to remind them as you are moving around, do that assessment. Every public vision building in israel is required to have a bomb shelter. Find the closest one and know where it is at all times. It is absolutely an ongoing process. The smallest details make a difference. The best example i can give up that is a year ago our correspondent in south sudan was called to cover in an antigovernment protest. She left her apartment in such a hurry and had all her gear but forgot her voa press id. She got to the city center and officials rounded up the journalists as they do, and began to require proof of their affiliation and she could not divide it she was she could not provide it. She was placed in prison in 10 days in south sudan. Not a good time. Getting ou