A panel of experts from the press, government, and academia discuss their new and upcoming projects. They discuss different methods of promoting investigative journalism, ranging from building non-profit institutions to converting the country of Iceland into a "free press haven."
The panel features Gavin MacFadyen (The Bureau for Investigative Journalism, UK), Chuck Lewis (American University), Julian Assange (WikiLeaks), Birgitta Jónsdóttir (Member of Parliament, Iceland) and Jon Weber (The Bay Citizen). Lowell Bergman moderates.
Bio
Julian Assange
Julian Assange is an Australian journalist, programmer and Internet activist, best known for his involvement with Wikileaks, a whistleblower website.
Lowell Bergman
Lowell Bergman, Director of the Investigative Reporting Program, is also a producer and correspondent for the PBS documentary series Frontline, and the Reva and David Logan Distinguished Professor of Investigative Reporting at the Graduate School of Journalism. After working in the alternative press, Bergman co-founded the Center for Investigative Reporting in 1977. Soon after, he joined ABC News where he became director of investigative reporting and a producer at 20/20. In 1983, Bergman joined 60 Minutes, where over the course of 14 years he produced more than 50 segments. His 60 Minutes investigation of the tobacco industry was dramatized in the Academy Award-nominated feature film The Insider. In 1998, Bergman forged a unique collaboration between The New York Times and PBS Frontline, to co-report stories for print and broadcast with the participation of graduate students. In 2004, Bergman received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, awarded to The New York Times for “A Dangerous Business,” which detailed a foundry company’s egregious worker safety and environmental violations. Bergman was a New York Times correspondent until 2008. Bergman has received numerous Emmy’s, as well as five Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University silver and golden Baton awards, three Peabodys, a Polk Award, a Sidney Hillman award for labor reporting, the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism and the James Madison Freedom of Information Award for Career Achievement from The Society of Professional Journalists. Bergman has lived for nearly 40 years in Berkeley, California. He is married to Ms. Sharon Tiller, the Director of Digital Media at the Center for Investigative Reporting.
Birgitta Jonsdottir
Birgitta Jonsdottir was born in Reykjavik, Iceland 1967. She has lived in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, USA, Australia, New Zealand and The Netherlands. She is currently living in Iceland.
Jonsdottir has been active in the Icelandic literature, music, and art scenes for more then 20 years and is considered one of the pioneers in bringing art and literature to the Internet. Her first book of poetry, Frostdinglar (Icicles), was published when she was twenty by one of Iceland's leading publishers. Her art has been exhibited in the USA, Asia and Europe. She has performed and lectured at festivals around the world. Her work has been published in anthologies, TV, radio, magazines, newspapers and on the Internet.
In 2008 she was one of the primus motors in various grassroots movements and helped co-found Solitary, a coalition of the grassroots movements for social change because of the economical collapse in Iceland. Shortly thereafter she founded with others the Civic Movement, a political movement that ran for parliamentary election in April 2009. The movement got more then 7% of the vote despite the fact they were only formed 8 weeks before elections and had no money to spend. They got 4 members of Parliament. The Civic Movement is a hit and run party - its main aim is to bring on democratic reform, bring more power to the people and to work as a horizontal movement. In the summer of 2009 a faction of the Civic movement made a hostile takeover at the annual meeting and changed the fundamental laws about the functions of the Civic Movement - changing it from a movement to party politics. That takeover resulted in all the MPs to leaving the Civic Movement. They created the Movement in order to preserve the integrity of the hit and run policy and horizontal structure of power. Jonsdottir is one of the Members of Parliament for the Movement.
Charles Lewis
Charles Lewis is a professor of journalism and the founding executive editor of the new Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication, in Washington, D.C.
A national investigative journalist since 1977, Lewis is a bestselling author who has founded or co-founded four nonprofit enterprises in Washington, including the Center for Public Integrity. He left a successful career as an investigative producer for ABC News and the CBS News program "60 Minutes" and began the Center for Public Integrity from his home, growing it to a full-time staff of 40 people. Under his leadership, the Center published roughly 300 investigative reports, including 14 books, from 1989 through 2004, honored more than 30 times by national journalism organizations.
Lewis was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1998. And in 2004, PEN USA, the respected literary organization, gave its First Amendment award to Lewis, "for expanding the reach of investigative journalism, for his courage in going after a story regardless of whose toes he steps on, and for boldly exercising his freedom of speech and freedom of the press." In 2009, the Encyclopedia of Journalism cited Lewis as "one of the 30 most notable investigative reporters in the U.S. since World War I."
Gavin MacFadyen
Gavin MacFadyen is the director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, a visiting professor at City University and research consultant to several US documentary and feature film companies.
He is a former producer-director at Granada Television's World in Action, Channel 4's Dispatches, BBC documentaries and current affairs, PBS, Frontline and ABC.
In addition to designing training programs and speaking in Brazil, Canada, China, Serbia, Norway, and the U.S., he has three feature film projects, based on investigations, currently in development.
Jonathan Weber
Prior to joining as Editor-in-Chief of The Bay Citizen, Jonathan Weber worked as reporter, editor and media entrepreneur for more than 20 years.
He most recently served as CEO and editor-in-chief of New West Publishing, the Missoula, Montana-based media company that he founded in 2005. New West's flagship product is NewWest.Net, an award-winning local and regional online publication about the Rocky Mountain West. One of the earliest experiments in creating a new, Web-centric model for high-quality journalism, NewWest.Net combines traditional reporting and writing with various forms of participatory journalism. Weber also served as the first T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Montana, and remains a member of the Journalism School Advisory Council.
Weber began his journalism career with Fairchild Publications, and served in that company's Paris bureau, among other assignments. He was part of the launch team for Geneva-based World Link magazine, a publication of the World Economic Forum.
Weber earned a B.A in Philosophy from Wesleyan University.
WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange explains why the organization has to provide text summaries of its raw data, as well as edit and annotate its raw video. Without the context, Assange says the site's more esoteric and technical content would simply "fall into the gutter."
In this April 2010 highlight, WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange recalls a few of the various government efforts to monitor and potentially shut down the site. "Whenever you see surveillance, what you're seeing is always the tip of the iceberg," he notes, "because it's when people have screwed up."
Collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through media such as pamphlets, newsletters, newspapers, magazines, radio, film, television, and books. The term was originally applied to the reportage of current events in printed form, specifically newspapers, but in the late 20th century it came to include electronic media as well. It is sometimes used to refer to writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation. Colleges and universities confer degrees in journalism and sponsor research in related fields such as media studies and journalism ethics.
This is a step forward towards true and more transparency in investigative journalism and to report the truth, even if it hurts certain interest sections. Journalists have to be brave and couragous to report the truth and be prepared to reveal all cover-ups. Protect the whistleblower, we must protect our Democracy, Freedom, Human Rights and expose the tyrants. Bravo!!!!
As an argentinian who has very often been embarrassed by our president and ex-president (Mr. and Mrs Kirchner) I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Assange for his courage to make the info concerning my country public and for revealing the TRUTH about our leaders and their international dealings.
dear friends,
i am greatly impressed by the courage and fortitude expressed here.... i have passed this on far and wide, a free press haven, what a concept, thank you Birgitta Jonsdottir for making this possible.... i shall watch this tory closely; it just might change the world, thanks for your courage, thea chang from hilo, hawai'i
I want to thank ForaTv.com and Logan Symposium and of coarse the brave journalists, Freedom of the press, the individual, and freedom to assemble,Liberty is dying these are very helpfull, usefull, motivating, inspiringt discussions. Thank You Peter Knopfler
I know, we should be addressing here subject of presentation rather then commenting on each other but it is so rare to read a comment of such a detached idiocy like the one submitted by Ivictus (the unconquered).
Definitely “unconquered” by any, even fleeting moment of mental effort.
Student with impressive names and titles who presumably is advancing in his study at impressively named school, but really, let’s hope that he will not graduate before he understands the word “Philosophy”
“Fora, the world is thinking”, thinking! Invictus.
Assange has stated his principles very clearly: goal - justice; method - transparency. I think it's an excellent goal and one of the most effective means possible.
Controlled leaks do happen, but they will happen whether wikileaks exists or not. This certainly does not detract from the usefulness of wikileaks. For example, the Afghanistan leak may contribute to the unpopularity of the war in the US, which might save Afghan lives. The foreign troops are the greatest threat to the people of Afghanistan. They are not there to defend women, contrary to what you think.
As to providing summaries and editorials, wikileaks did not do this initially and Assange explained convincingly why they decided to change this. And don't forget that they still do publish the raw data. You don't need to read the summary if you think it's biased. Go to the data itself.
Assange is a courageous and self-sacrificing man. We should be grateful to him, and not throw abuse at him, as you do.
Wow, what a power, integrity and courage, not to mention towering intellects.
Mr. Assange with his friends brought down two governments, a prime minister and had driven big bankers to despair and suicide, crushing on the way any force thrown at him by “those who do not want you to know”.
These guys here are the only possessors of the Truth, or only ones willing to revile the Truth to us, and to make sure that we will understand the Truth they will “package” story by editing it and provide commentary before, during and in the conclusion of presentation.
After all they can not take a risk of us missing obvious fact of massive conspiracy, usually if not exclusively of Right doing.
Facts presented in intentional way are more powerful then lies especially if one select few of them from big story.
It is unlikely that Mr. Assange is calculating cynic but very likely that at least, Mr. Assange is being used by those he “exposes” and he doesn’t realize it.
Leaked emails from climate scientists were very timely and welcomed by climate change skeptics during crucial period before Copenhagen and latest revelation (available publicly since always) of Pakistan duplicity in relation to afghan conflict coincide with change in US policy towards Pakistan.
We have what pro-war forces wanted, public discussion about obvious need to address problem of Pakistan involvement in regional conflict.
Whose interest this revelations are advancing?
Wiki leaks is choosing what is published and when and how much of it and is not shy of editing it and supplying conclusions.
Conspiracy theory is better then no theory at all, simple truth better then complex one and opportunity to feel intellectually and morally superior too irresistible, you can have a bit or even a lot of it if you follow “me.”
Mr. Assange is to me, a narcissistic, poorly informed guy who claims to be “intellectual” and “journalist” something he is so obviously not, and who seems to stop at nothing to get an attention.
But as they say, “it takes all kinds to make a world.”
marecki
The comments on this thread are hilarious. This self-gratifying, self-congratulating pratt just released information that will put hundreds of innocent Afghans at mortal risk - fathers who wanted their daughters to be able to attend school, mothers who didn't want to have religious dress imposed on them - because they opposed the Taliban.
There's no morality in this man's work - just a wanker's vainglory.
Making it all more amusing is the fact that his 92,000 pages of data on Afghanistan didn't actually reveal anything that was truly damning for the US or its allies - only things that endangered Afghans.
