The Society of Professional Journalists has named the top 10 urgent threats to freedom of information in 2023 at the local, state and tribal levels in conjunction with Sunshine Week, the annual nationwide celebration of access to public information. “The public’s right to access government records is critical to a healthy democracy, yet freedom of information is under constant threat,” SPJ Freedom of Information Committee Chair Jodi Rave Spotted Bear said. “Open records laws are critical to government transparency at the local, state, federal and tribal level. All lawmakers should be working to strengthen freedom of information protections, not weaken them.”
The Society of Professional Journalists has crafted the recommendations to help television news managers create safe working conditions for solo television reporters, also known as MMJs. It recommends that news managers share these guidelines with staff. This list was compiled by the SPJ MMJ Safety Task Force, which includes experienced television journalists.
Experienced multimedia journalists and employment experts urged MMJs to compel their bosses to be more proactive about field safety in a second virtual town hall for MMJs sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists last Saturday. MMJs have more newsroom clout than they think, experts said.
Exclusives
President Joe Biden’s honeymoon with the press may be officially over about two months into his term. The Society of Professional Journalists on Tuesday (March 23) called on the Department of Homeland Security to stop blocking media access to border facilities, condemning the action as a failure for the new president.
Fix the Court, the Radio Television Digital News Association and the Society of Professional Journalists have joined with more than two dozen groups to ask Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to continue to provide live audio of its oral arguments.
The Society of Professional Journalists today appointed veteran nonprofit leader John Shertzer is its new executive director. “SPJ is excited to welcome John and looks forward to introducing him to […]
The Society of Professional Journalists today said it “is outraged at evidence that the United States government created a secret database that includes information about journalists covering the migrant caravan that led to excessive detention of journalists at the southern border and even denial of entry.”
RTDNA is joining the Society of Professional Journalists and a score of other journalism groups, urging the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the state of media in the United States. The groups say an informed public is crucial to democracy and they want to work together to ensure the public has an informed opinion of the press and its role.
The Society of Professional Journalists has joined an amicus brief with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in a case involving a defamation lawsuit in California that concerns the “actual malice” standard. The court’s ruling, according to the brief, would severely constrain the ability of the press to “effectively expose deception in the government” and “preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know.”
An NAB session outlines how to apply traditional journalistic ethics to the use of social media in both collecting and distributing information. The discussion focused on best practices for using social media as part of the profession, even if there is no way of formally encoding them. “We are not giving you all the answers,” says SPJ’s Andrew Seaman, who recently participated in updating SPJ’s Code of Ethic to extend to social media. “The only absolute we have in the code is do not plagiarize.”
In a new report, The Society of Professional Journalists and the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, find science and environmental reporters struggle to obtain […]
The Society of Professional Journalists is reiterating its call to the Environmental Protection Agency to stop banning leading national scientists from communicating with the press and the public. In recent days the EPA has reaffirmed in great part its policy released earlier this year restricting the communications of independent scientists who advise the agency, according to a memorandum from the EPA’s chief of staff. In response, SPJ sent another letter to the EPA on Monday decrying its decision.
Whoa! Journalism’s New Code Of Ethics
The journalism profession is trying to reduce speeding on the information superhighway. The Society of Professional Journalists adopted a new code of ethics this month and the main difference between the revamped code and and the one that had been in place since 1996 is that the new version addresses the alarming tendency to rush stuff onto the Web as soon as we hear about it, without taking the time to make sure it’s true.
The Society of Professional Journalists and 37 other media organizations sent an open letter to President Obama on Tuesday calling on him to stop stifling the media and provide greater transparency.
Plenty of RTDNA No-Shows At EIJ 2013
Outgoing RTDNA chairman Vince Duffy says he’s disappointed by his group’s attendance at the joint journalism conference, but is pleased that his group is no longer in the red. Overall, EIJ attendance was up, boosted by this year’s addition of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in addition to RTDNA and the Society of Professional Journalists.
EIJ13 Conference Casts Wide Journalistic Net
This year’s Excellence in Journalism convention Aug. 24-26 in Anaheim will feature sessions and other content suggestions submitted by RTDNA members and will also be co-sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The joint sponsorship is reflected in the wide range of sessions and workshops that are of interest to journalists across-the-board, increasingly so as newspeople are required to work on multiple platforms.
The Society of Professional Journalists has written a letter to Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy opposing the state’s efforts to pass legislation that would withhold public information about the Newtown school shootings.
Among the winners of this year’s Sigma Delta Chi Awards presented by the Society of Professional Journalists are WKYC Cleveland; WDSU New Orleans; KQED San Francisco; WVUE New Orleans; KING Seattle; KCCI Des Moines, Iowa; KXAS Dallas; KRGV Harlingen, Texas ; WNET New York; KNTV San Francisco; KTUU Anchorage; and WGBH Boston.
The most jam-packed sessions at the SPJ/RTDNA conference in New Orleans dealt with how news teams are using Twitter and Facebook to both disseminate news and find scoops for hot stories. Twitter is now akin to an AP wire service, and at least one journo expert considers Twitter followers to be a journalist’s most important assets.
How do you manage a newsroom? How do you tell a real video from a bogus one? How do you use social media to cover your beat? These are among many questions addressed in sessions at the joint RTDNA/SPJ Excellence In Journalism conference taking place in New Orleans this week.
Relevance Is Top Priority At RTDNA Show
After teaming with the NAB for its annual conference, the Radio Television Digital News Association has a new partner this year, the Society of Professional Journalists. It’s a move RTDNA Chairman Kevin Benz says gives the group an opportunity to present a conference “that is absolutely and totally journalism-based. We believe that we will be putting on the most important journalism discussion in the country.”
The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) announced Wednesday that Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and executive producer for 60 Minutes, will […]
The Society of Professional Journalists has joined an amicus brief supporting Raycom Hattiesburg, Miss., NBC affiliate’s fight to lift a court order preventing it from airing a videotape of alleged abuse at a youth detention facility.
