Can you guys hear me . Can everybody hear me . Thank you for coming out. Can you guys hear me . Do i need to do this . So, good morning, everybody in thank you for coming. I know it is a busy time. [indiscernible] sorry, ok, we could not have done this without your assistance, thank you. We have an interesting and Informative Program today with speakers with deep firsthand insight into some pressing issues of the day. The Ukrainian Ambassador to the u. S. Will speak, general eric smith, a former commander, general joseph rosa be here to talk about what is going on in the middle east. Nbcs National Security correspondent has been at the forefront of a lot of these issues and will offer her insights, as well. We have a frank discussion with policy affair officials, the challenges in ukraine and afghanistan, and we have our own words terminate today and our first annual casing, so stick around for that. The first thing we looked at was journalist killed doing their jobs. 27 of them are covering the latest issues of the hamas war and the majority of the journalists are from gaza, like the journalist with a news website he was killed during the early bombardment. But other journalists were killed in lebanon and israel, one killed by hamas on the invasion on october 7. We joined the committee and the call to investigate the deaths, and we called for a full and independent investigation on the killing of a journalist by Israeli Soldiers last year. Nothing about that appears to be in action. Journalists have also been killed in ukraine, on what is a brutal invasion by russia, afghanistan, colombia, sudan, india, x ago, bangladesh. Here in the u. S. , dylan lyons was fatally shot while covering a homicide in florida on february 2. It is not just that journalists are being killed but they have been detained and held. One reporter was arrested in march and rush on the ludicrous charge of espionage. Russia, set him free. An editor for the u. S. Radio europe is being held by russia for failing to register as a foreign agent. Russia, set her free. A defense news correspondent based in india was arrested in midmay, accused of espionage. He is innocent. And there is a surge of troubling events in india under the press, set him free. And then a journalist objected for over 11 years now. We continue to call on the Biden Administration to bring them home. Dont continue to send a message to the world that we dont do everything we can to ensure that the freedom is our own. Allowing them to keep them this long is unconscionable. Set them free. Many of us will continue to risk our lives, to bring home stories, sounds that we need to see and hear and shine a light on dark places. Im here in the relative safety of the u. S. , disinformation and misinformation that just Bad Information provides stories, and this is why mre exists. We are here to advocate, defend, educate, so i implore anyone in the room who is not a member to join and sign up. There is strength in numbers and freedom of the press is not free. Thank you. With that, we will start our first panel. [applause] we have a great first panel covering ukraine. The journalist perspective. We have Vivian Salama from wall street journal and frank from npr, moderated by megan ekstein. Id like to let you both introduce yourselves to the audience. Can you just walk us through your first time going to ukraine, what you saw there, since subsequent visits, i guess how you have approached trying to cover the ongoing conflict . Vivian its great to be with you all. Lavers time as a journalist going to ukraine, i should say, it was just before the conflict started. I went in january of 2022 and things were very tense, but also , people were in a little bit of a state of denial at that moment. The u. S. Had been warning over and over again and the europeans over and over again that they had the intelligence to show russia was amassing forces with the intention to invade. And the ukrainians were very matteroffact about it. They didnt want to feel panic, they didnt want people rushing to the banks and china flee, so they were trying to have a sense of calm. They know our enemy better than anyone else and everyone has to stay calm. And i left unconveniently, a week before the invasion began and i went back and looked a few weeks later. Frank its good to see everybody here. Talking about pentagon correspondence it was an old friend of mine. Tom was giving me tons of information. It was extremely helpful in terms of reporting. I got there a couple of weeks before the invasion and i chide to time it to figure out, this was a tricky thing when we talk about covering these events. I talked to one of my editors who said we will send you in later and i said, there will be no later because the airport will get shut down and its going to be a mad rush to get over the border and get in, so i had to actually call them back and say, the olympics are going to end, this is what happened in 2008 with the invasion of georgia, its pretty much the playbook, so i was able to i pressure him and he said go, and that was fine. I had the same experience vivian had. I had never reported in ukraine, i just didnt know very much. I ended up on a panel discussion, which was embarrassing. I felt like a poster child for the reporter, and everyone was saying, you reporters from the west in the United States are fear mongering and towards the end, i was in odessa the night before the attack and i was actually at the ports because i was very interested, we were just talking a moment ago, megan and i, about the importance of the black sea and the economics. And i had a talk to people at the port to say, what is your plan and they said, there is no plan, this isnt going to happen. At that point i knew at 5 00 in the morning it would happen. Once that happened i had a challenging time talking to my fixer and my driver to convince them that the country was under invasion. I was there and similar experience being the american warmonger of thinking that something was going to happen, clearly there is not an acknowledgment on the ground that a war was coming despite the buildup of troops on the border, the ongoing russian exercises that led to another russian exercise that was constantly increasing troop levels. You two and your company is obviously were reading the tea leaves, having covered previous conflicts, i wonder what gave you that gut feeling that you needed to be there in january and in earlier february before the war started, and how was your past experience driving what you knew to be correct, even if there wasnt that acknowledgment on the ground of what may be coming . Vivian there were a few things. One never knows until it actually happens, but i wish i could read Vladimir Putins mind. But i cannot, unfortunately. We were talking to intelligence sources who, at that point, i teach a class in journalism and National Security and i tell my students, ever the government tells you, be very skeptical. Shes Good Practice whatever anyone tells you to be skeptical. The front door, communications people, spokespeople were telling us this. But our intelligence sources were telling us and that was enough confirmation to say, this is real, this is not just a messaging effort or anything like that. I remember being in ukraine that week before i was supposed to leave. I mightve just arrived back in the u. S. Days before the invasion and in intelligence source texted me and said, if youre still in ukraine, you need to leave now. Frank i got a lot of that. Vivian i went, im not, now i feel like i need to go back. Frank i had the opposite experience in that in the final 48 hours we had joe biden going on television saying, if you are american and you are there, you are on your own. So, my wife would call and say, i assume youre at the airport. I said, i cant be at the airport because the invasion hasnt started yet and i set i was going to come here. Then when i was talking to tom, our pentagon correspondent, he was talking to people very high up in the pentagon and he said, we got a guy in odessa and the answer was, get him out. As the missiles after the missiles hit, we were driving to get outside of odessa because they concern at that time was that there would be an air assault that would cut off all the roads, then you are surrounded and it will be a bad situation. So im driving north just to get out of that place and im on googles saying, writing something i never thought i would write on google, which is, can american citizens get into mauled overviews are free. Because its like, where you go. I cant get into trans mystery a , so you are kind of its a really interesting situation because nobody is ready for this, the Ukrainian Military wasnt ready for it, we werent entirely ready for it, and you are kind of thinking, what do i do now, where do i go, how do i cover the sting and also not run into a russian tank. Megan in year three subsequent visits each, how is it different . You were a little bit more familiar with the situation on the ground, presumably the Ukrainian Military was a little bit more thinking about Information Warfare has just been a big aspect of this. I think they were thinking more about press coverage, so walk me through your subsequent visits, what type of stories you were telling and how that was different from your experience the first time. Vivian for me, from the first time, the boss place i was before getting on a airplane, which you can into after that, and leaving ukraine was in a city where my friend alex was supposed to be and he couldnt make it today, but we were both in the city around the same time men if you follow the news closely, it was essentially wiped out, just super tragic and is occupied and no one can get there now. Thats a prime example of areas that we had been reporting prior to the invasion that we could no longer access. Obviously, just in terms of danger and the security protocol, i was rolling around with just one guy and hiring locals, fixers and translators everywhere i went in ukraine. That when we went back, we were on a security team, often times with armored vehicles. We would have a team where it was a reporter, me, security guy , we could talk about that and in a bit and then a fixer translator because i do not speak ukrainian or russian and a photographer. The audio folks have a different set up, but we were rolling with a bit of an entourage, which is great for danger purposes of danger and the purposes of understanding things, but we couldnt really access local fixers and translators, we didnt know who we could trust because a lot of people fled the country so we were relying on people in kyiv to travel with us. A lot of them were young guys that had no experience in journalism. A couple of them were tech guys. Because so many people fled. It was very different atmosphere in that regard. The first time i think i mostly focused on the online spot news, and define feature stories along the way. The legend bob reid has just walked in the room. This man is a legend. I mean it. We will talk about him in a minute. So, we basically would go just hop over, do whatever stories we could find along the way. Stories would pop up, but we were very focused on the incremental gains of the Ukrainian Military. City got hit in that city got one back. Was so word im looking for. We were basically just trying to do Human Interest features and that was partially a strategic approach because we want people to still be interested in the war. Its hard to keep on telling people many people died, the city was hit, that city was retaken. The broader public only had so much they could take, so we had to find new and interesting ways to tell the story and thats always true in wars. When were you in mariupol . Vivian i left a week and a half before the invasion. I had a similar experience. Vivian we were there right before that. We were at the palace. I was there about 10 days before, and it was funny because, one said theres going to be a dog and pony show on fighting russia terrorism, counterterrorism thing. These dog and pony shows often are pretty bad, but i remember ages ago when i first started as a foreign correspondent, a reporter that i knew, which was in china said, when in doubt, just get on the plane because you always learn something. So we go down there, its kind of a not terribly convincing enactment in which they have people playing russian saboteurs try note low up a dam, which the russians did a few days later, so it didnt stop them, but what was really interesting was zelensky showed up. It was a small town in zelensky comes out and they put a dash out and we put these microphones out and it was really striking because he did not do a good job, he was very defensive, he kept insisting. Nothing would happen and we all looked at each other and thought, this is going to be a disaster. Vivian i was there. Frank was the press conference on the street . It was on a street in a small town and we were really, really nervous about this and he got into an argument with a fox News Reporter who got the better of him, frankly, and it was really striking. What was helpful as a reporter was to see the president in the flesh, see what he was like 10 days before the invasion because two or three days after that, he was a completely different person than the person i saw on the street. I ended up using a lot of that to infirm and form along profile i did on him later. I met people who knew him when he was in high school, college and was just coming up as a standup performer, and it was just very helpful. It was a sort of thing i wasnt sure i was going to go see this dog and pony show and it up really informing, in terms of my next trip was in april and talking about the Human Interest story, what i was looking for first of all, i think theyre great protagonists was the citizen soldiers in the long term soldiers. We spent a week trying to get in touch with a colonel who had his own independent Reconnaissance Team that he had formed on facebook with his own old soldiers he saw vote with in the donbas. And he also happen to be chairman of the Defense Committee and the parliament, so he could talk to you at a personal level because he lived there, and the russians had taken over his house and taken his metals in his body armor, and at the same time, he would talk about the 35 thousand foot level, and because he had his own pickup or, since team, there was no military press or anything. So, it took a long time for him to agree, but we went and spent time with him in a safe house that they had. We went out to me his Reconnaissance Team, things along those lines. Speaking of what vivian was saying, trying to find those characters that can do a lot for you, i think weve all had this experience that can talk to the listener or the reader and explain the story at a very personal level and also a very analytical level, i found that really helpful. Megan i wanted to ask you about the human aspect. Its not Something Like an earthquake or an attack where you go in there is tragedy, then you move on to the next story. This is gruesome, its dangerous, its sad, there is just human tragedy on such a scale, i wonder how you both process that and keep yourself ok during repeated visits that also how do you bring your readers along. Its already get people to care about tragedy two years later, so how do you make yourselves ok and how do you continue to have that emotional connection for your readers . Vivian the jury is still out if we are ok. Again, hes covered more wars than me, so i would hate to put myself in this position, but you find i was having a conversation with a colleague of mine whos younger and is covering the israelgaza conflict and talk to me about the emotional toll it was having, and i said, think of yourself as a doctor, process emotions later, but you have to just do it now, go in there, operate, the patient might die, just do it now. Will process later. I think that is possibly how i have gone through a lot of the experiences. These are not my first rodeos. Im not very advanced in age but im advanced in age enough that ive experience iraq, afghanistan, yemen and libya. It takes a toll. Im not going to sit here and say, you will be fine, talk to a shrink, everything will be great. What you have to rely on the resources. Nowadays its talked about a lot more than it used to be, the idea of protecting your Mental Health in addressing ptsd. In the old days they called it shellshocked. The poor guys shellshocked, he will get over it. They push amount to the next war. Its changing now, but it doesnt change the fact that you will be impacted by what you see and stuff like that, i say to people, try to use that to your advantage, try to use that emotion to reach in and be compassionate and make a connection with people and empathize with the people you are talking to, those emotions could sometimes beer superpower. Try not to let them get the better of you in terms of biases and things like that. But i dont see anything wrong with you are human, you are seeing terrible thing sometimes when you cover wars, so would only make sense you would have a very intense reaction to it. That was a very rambling answer. Maybe you can be more articulate. Frank no, i just think its interesting to hear how you do manage it, for better or worse, i just compartmentalize. When im there, im always thinking, pierces fascinating character, and i really want millions of people to hear this persons perspective, this personal story, so they will get at least some sense of whats happening and so i just focus entirely on those people in the person im talking to, and then i agree with you, its like, address it later. I dont know, either no, i just kind of focus on the story and to the story and i do the best i can and sort of, i guess for like part of my job is to also and try to think of the right word, its early in the morning. Its not honor them, but sort of give them their respect and give them this platform. Ill just mostly focus on that. I think vivians right. People talk a lot more now about ptsd, which is great, because it can be really bad. At the beginning of the war, myself and eleanor beardsley, we were the oldest people there and had the most experience, and we were also working with a lot of young people who were terrified. I found myself in an interesting role because i dont have the experience covering conflict. And i thought, im like the dad now. I have to calm everybody down. I was like, oh, ok, this is the