
Archives for October, 2016
Gavin MacFadyen: A remembrance
Posted: Oct. 23, 2016 | Tags: journalism

CJI photo
Journalist Gavin MacFadyen
A leading and memorable figure in investigative journalism, Gavin MacFadyen, 76, died in London Saturday after a short illness. His wife, creative producer Susan Benn, the founder and president of the Performing Arts Lab there, survives him.
Gavin, according to his IMDb profile, was a senior director/producer, and he worked on over 50 investigative television programs, for PBS FRONTLINE, Granada Television’s "World in Action," the BBC’s programs "Fine Cut," "Panorama," "The Money Programme" and "24 Hours," and British Channel 4’s "Dispatches." He investigated and reported on such stories about child labor ...
Chuck Lewis attends the Integrity20 conference in Australia
Posted: Oct. 21, 2016 | Tags: Charles Lewis
Photo by Jeff Watts, AU
Charles Lewis
Terrorism, corruption and the future of democracy — those are some of the topics that will be addressed at the Integrity20 conference in Brisbane, Australia, from Oct. 24-26. The conference aims to assemble “20 of the world’s most unique, courageous and provocative minds” to discuss some of the most important problems the world faces. One of the speakers will be Charles Lewis, the founding executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop.
“I will talk about why the U.S. elections are so astonishingly different from elections in other major countries,” Lewis says. He ...
Newseum celebrates Cronkite's legacy
Posted: Oct. 17, 2016 | Tags: journalism, journalism history
“If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”
— President Lyndon Johnson, 1968
Top journalists came together in Washington recently to remember the life and impact of news anchor Walter Cronkite, a journalist once known as “the most trusted man in America.”
For decades, Cronkite defined broadcast journalism. He was the anchor who told America about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the death of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the first walk on the moon. He was the reporter who brought the Watergate scandal to a national audience when other networks were too afraid ...
Can the next president rewrite the First Amendment?
Posted: Oct. 17, 2016 | Tags: elections

New York Times photo
Adam Liptak
The 2016 presidential election’s effect on free speech comes with a good-news-bad-news message: The Supreme Court is likely to continue protecting free speech for reporters and the public, but “secrecy creep” will probably worsen in executive agencies and the White House.
A bipartisan trend towards less transparency, “secrecy creep” results in less information for the press and the public, Katie Townsend, litigation director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said. She made her comments during a National Press Club Journalism Institute panel discussion Wednesday.
Photo by Delane Rouse/DC Corporate ...
Lessons on media law
Posted: Oct. 4, 2016 | Tags: media law

Illustration by Ben Fall, IRW
From bias and free speech to copyright and censorship, issues in media law dominated a daylong session at the National Press Club recently.
“Media Law for Journalists: A legal workshop and editorial roundtable” was designed to teach journalists and journalism students how to protect themselves from libel accusations, violations of privacy and reputational harm. The program was run by the Media Law Resource Center, which is hosting a similar session at Boston University Oct. 17.
The first question on the agenda: "How do journalists get into trouble for their content?" Tips from the experts follow ...