NYT: U.S. to Promote Press Freedom

By THE NEW YORK TIMES



WASHINGTON — President Obama signed legislation on Monday intended to promote a free press around the world, a bipartisan measure inspired by the murder in Pakistan of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.



The legislation, called the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, requires the State Department to expand its scrutiny of news media restrictions and intimidation as part of its annual review of human rights in each country. Among other considerations, the department will be required to determine whether foreign governments participate in or condone violations of press freedom.



The new law “puts us clearly on the side of journalistic freedom,” Mr. Obama said, praising Mr. Pearl’s family for being “outspoken and so courageous” in pursuing the cause. With the law, the president added, “his legacy lives on.”



Mr. Obama was joined in the Oval Office by Mr. Pearl’s widow, Mariane, and the son he never met, Adam, who was born several months after his father’s death and will turn 8 this month.



Mr. Pearl, a veteran correspondent for The Journal, was reporting on terrorist groups in Pakistan when he was kidnapped and beheaded in early 2002. Four men were convicted in Pakistan soon afterward, and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of 9/11, told American investigators in 2007 that he had killed Mr. Pearl.

Illume Blazes New Frontiers in Digital Journalism

Posted in: Features

Maryam Khan Ansari
May 7, 2010
9:15 AM







Tell people what you want them to believe. That's easy. What's difficult is to change the way people think.



"See a cow, say a cow."







If you have no clue what those words mean, then chances are that you weren't at Illume 's first in a series of events on multimedia journalism.





These were words of wisdom, conveyed by Illume's resident broadcast journalist, Anser Hassan, to participants at Illume's event on the weekend of April 16 -- Digital Journalism in the Age of Multimedia Story Telling. Mr. Hassan was explaining the simplistic, yet impactful style of writing in broadcast journalism: the necessity to write what you see in front of you, as you see it. And while Mr. Hassan's statement had nothing to do with farm animals, another speaker, Farzad Wafapoor, made several statements which echoed the wisdom quoted by the spider in E.B. White's farm tale, "Charlotte's Web":







Humans will believe anything, so long as its in print.







Or in Mr. Wafapoor's case, so long as its on screen.







But that's the premise behind the force that is the mass media-- and the associated bias that emanates from what is presented before America. Tell people what you want them to believe. That's easy. What's difficult is to change the way people think.



And change is what Illume is trying to do, by being a pioneer of its kind in educating Americans about eliminating media bias, while combating extremism.



Now, perhaps the spider's wisdom was somewhat cynical. But both Mr. Wafapoor and Mr. Hassan are skilled in the art of multimedia story telling. Farzad Wafapoor is an Emmy Award winning documentarian, renown for his work on documenting the plight of Bosnian refugees. Anser Hassan is an award-winning assignment editor at a local CBS affiliate and brings wisdom from being on camera as well as behind the scenes.



This event, held in northern California, was a novelty for Illume, a new fish making a huge splash in a large pond. And given the success of the Bay Area event, other similar events are planned in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Boston.



Since its inception over four years ago, Illume has won awards and acclaim, including the Excellence in Journalism award from the California State Senate. Illume has also grown its roster to add Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalists and producers from major news networks and media companies, including NBC, CBS, CNN, Associated Press and Thomson-Reuters.



The purpose of the event was largely to teach the participants how to tell journalistic stories using digital media. But it also had the purpose of showing people what Illume was really about-- high quality, effective and unbiased journalism.



One of the goals of Illume is the elimination of bias in the media, while another is to foster dialogue to fight extremism. The theme that resonated throughout the event was the importance of presenting a fair and balanced piece of journalism.



I spoke to two of the keynote speakers during the course of the event about the bias in the media.



Mr. Hassan spoke of the necessity for minority groups to understand the importance of the media and even more crucial, the importance of media outreach. An area of concern, Mr. Hassan articulated, was that some minority groups end up inadvertently perpetuating negative stereotypes.



Farzad Wafapoor stated that television and cinema were the two most effective media to eliminate bias.



"Research has proven, time and again, the effect of television on the public's perception," he told me, "and cinema, since it first came out, has been the most powerful work of art."



While eliminating media bias is an uphill battle, teaching effective journalism techniques will help minority groups climb that hill, step by step.



As Mr. Hassan said in his speech: "Remember, you're not trying to save the world, you're telling a minute long story." But according to Mr. Wafapoor, these very acts of micro story-telling are what have some of the strongest impact on social perception.



So perhaps you can "save the world" with a minute long story? Maybe not save it, but change it -- quite possibly.



Last Updated: May 7, 2010
9:15 AM

MMP-Presentation-Around the Corner at the Booth

MMP-Presentation

Pitch----China: A Leading Jailer of Journalists

Don't be surprised if I tell you that journalists could get jailed for uncovering a fake irrigation project, performing their watchdog role, or posting a piece of information on overseas website...

That number totals 24, and each and every one of them have a story that deserves our attention to the state of the press in China. Listen to what they say; watch what experts say about them, and the state of the press in China; and what the general public comments on their work and their courage... Now it is time for free people like you and me in free world to take stand on China, and call for the release of these journalists of conscience, for justice...

Journalism's Digital Transition: Unique Legal Challenges and Opportunities

Anyone interested in legal matters of journalism transition, please check this great event at Harvard! Good luck and enjoy!

Revised Proposal for Final Project: Journalists Behind Bars

Based on feedback and research, I have decided to contract the topic "The State of the PRC Press in New Century", which is still so attractive to me, but due to limited human and financial resources, I am afraid of lack of depth in terms of theme and project development. Now, I am to focus on the jailed journalists: their journalistic experience, and the charges against them, and what exact event led them to jail.

(1)WHY: The reasons for choosing this topic are simple: a professional journalist for a decade of working experience in Asia, Africa and America, I would like to share with the general public (the target audience) my understanding of journalism in Communist China, which is claimed to be a People's Republic of China, but actually merely "the Party Representatives of China" a term I coined for its own nature, as it is never a republic, because people are never allowed to exercise their legitimate rights, and only Party officials have and maintain the rights for themselves since its establishment. Today it is still ruled by only one political party-the Communist Party, where the press is under the control of the Party and the government. Journalists who try to seek truth and play the role of watchdog in the interest of the public, often end up behind bars.

It serve the interest of journalism itself, and general public of the world community, to shed spotlight on the fate of journalist who follow their hearts in (the Party Representatives of) China, which claims to have seen economic growth at a double-digit rate, and which is viewed by the outsiders to become a world leader in many fields in the coming decades (before its doomsday, like the USSR?).

Will the world benefit from the development of such an authoritarian regime with growing wealth that disrespects such universal values as human rights and democracy, serves the interest of the ruling Party and elite groups rather than the "proles", and supports other authoritarian regimes such as Cuba, North Korea, Iran, to name a few?

(2)WHAT: If journalists cannot practice their craft the way they should, and often get punished, getting fired, getting in jail, for their professional work, what is it like to be a journalist in that country? What is the state of the press in today's (PR)China? How does the government and the Communists control the press and the journalists? What are journalists doing in day-to-day work? What happened to those journalists who tried to perform their roles?

(3)HOW: I would take advantage of multimedia tools to show the reality of the working environment, by interviewing journalists, both local and international, working in that country, and experts on the Chinese press, and post texts, photos, audio, and video materials (and perhaps cartoons).

With interactive map technologies, readers and viewers can track the tragedies of journalists who were arrested and/or beaten for their reporting, and where these sites are, and when and how these happened, particularly, those behind bars for their journalistic work.

Data mining technologies will help readers/viewers find out stories of those jailed journalists (24 as of December 31, 2009, according to CPJ).

The website will be designed and developed in a reader/viewer-friendly way, with community function, allowing them to contribute their writings, subscribe to RSS, leave their comments, Twitter their favorite material, share on their FACEBOOK, Yahoo Buzz, Digg, and so on.

The above is a third revised draft incorporating feedbacks from peers for further inside and outside classroom discussions. Many thanks for your interest and thoughtful tips.

I look forward to hearing from my classmates and professors and the general public who come across this project idea.

Again, I really appreciate your time and interest.