Senate Takes Pass on Shield Law – For Now

Despite broad bipartisan support from both Congressional houses, Senate leaders decided against taking the Free Flow of Information Act (S. 2035) to the Senate floor yesterday. According to Lucy Dalglish, executive director for Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the goal of this important bill is to “create a qualified federal shield law that restricts the federal government’s ability to subpoena journalists.”

Despite the procedural delay, Dalglish says the Free Flow Act is still alive. In the past nine months, the Senate Judiciary Committee and full House of Representatives have passed the measure. According to RCFP, a revised version of the bill could be brought to the floor in September.

For more, see www.rcfp.org.

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Terrorism v Free Speech & Democracy: A Dialogue On Spain's 'Pais Vasco'

What is the impact of domestic terrorism on the civic life of a country? How does the threat of violence affect free speech and a free press? Where is the line between a legitimate push for independence on the part of a region versus the hijacking of the population by armed separatists? And how have the tactics of domestic armed separatists as well as the response of authorities changed over time –particularly in the post-9/11 era?

These were some of the issues that the Journalism Program’s Mark Hallett explored with Spanish Ambassador to the United States Javier Ruperez July 9th at the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum’s sixth Table of Nations event. Ruperez, a veteran politician, author and member of the Spanish diplomatic corps – as well as a former victim of kidnapping – was willing to share some of his own experience and observations from more than four decades in public life. For an MTFM blog item on this dinner discussion, click here: http://fanningtheflames.blogspot.com/2008/07/table-of-nations-spainpais-vasco.html. To learn more about upcoming Table of Nations dinners and other MTFM events, visit the Museum’s Web site at www.freedommuseum.us.

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It's Arrived!

Four years and thousands of planning hours later, the mother of all journalistic conferences, UNITY, kicks off this week in Chicago.

The quadrennial convening is organized by UNITY: Journalists of Color, a strategic alliance advocating news coverage about people of color and more diverse news media. More than 10,000 journalists are members, drawing from the four national organizations that comprise UNITY: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is slated to speak, among other dignitaries, including the President of Senegal. For the full schedule, visit: www.2008unity.org. You can catch the McCormick journalism staff at a number of McCormick-funded events and projects, including:

• The student projects ( more than 60 diverse college students are covering"the conference through print, online, broadcast and multimedia)
• A research study measuring the diversity of the Washington Press Corps (in conjunction with Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism)
• A video, produced by the McCormick Fellows, documenting how newsrooms have changed since the 1968 Kerner Commission. It will be shown at Thursday morning's plenary.

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A Few Great Ideas

When J-Lab put out the call for innovative digital news and information projects from women entrepreneurs, they didn't know the onslaught of quality projects they'd receive. Nearly 200 women submitted ideas for microgrants to launch or expand new digital projects as part of the inaugural McCormick-funded New Media Women Entrepreneurs initiative. A few months later, J-Lab has selected three proposals to receive $10,000 grants to launch their projects:

• Echo, a system of public storytelling installations in Atlanta. Led by Lila King and Karyn Lu, movers behind CNN’s user-generated site iReport.com.
• Latina Voices, a news site for and by Latinas. Led by Teresa Puente, a journalism professor at Columbia College Chicago and member of the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.
• Northwest Navy News, a networking site for Puget Sound’s military community. Led by Elaine Helm Norton, new media editor at The Daily Herald in Everett, Wash., and a former military beat reporter.

The NMWE project is addressing opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism by spotlighting their ingenuity and entrepreneurial abilities. Pilot projects will show what can be done. Research will tell what more to do. A summit in 2009 will showcase women’s creative ideas.

Learn more at www.newmediawomen.org.

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