Society of Professional Journalists -- Washington DC

01/21/2025

📣 Get ready: Our 2025 Dateline Awards Contest is opening soon! The contest is open to journalists in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland. Finalists and winners will be announced in June at our Dateline Awards and Hall of Fame dinner. Learn more:

Each year, the SPJ DC Pro Chapter honors the best in print, broadcast and online journalism. This year’s 2025 Dateline Awards contest will open soon. Prepare now to submit your best...

12/20/2024

What sad news. A company founded by a journalist that made one of the best reporter notebooks around has folded.

A reporter's notebook is the most trusted tool in journalism and writing. Improved for the modern writer, First Draft's Reporter's Notebook is made from premium products at a price any writer or newsroom can afford. The Reporter's Notebook by First Draft Notebooks is sturdy and stylish.

10/17/2024

Killer of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German sentenced -

A former Las Vegas-area Democratic elected official was sentenced Wednesday to serve at least 28 years in Nevada state prison for killing an investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of his conduct in office two years ago.

10/14/2024

Global to Local: Lessons for Open Government & Civic Engagement for DC. This event is co-organized by the DC Open Government Coalition and the U.S. General Services Administration’s, U.S. Open Government Secretariat.

This non-partisan event will feature an overview of international/national open government efforts and how they relate to local communities such as DC. Specifically, the event will set the stage for discussing transparency reform for all DC residents, including efforts to establish a Transparency Reform Commission.

Please let us know at your earliest convenience if you can join us.

Event Details:
Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Time: 5:00pm - 6:30pm ET
Location: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Public Library - 901 G St NW Washington, DC 20001; Metro: Gallery Place on the Red, Green, and Yellow lines

Participants: 40 in person (registration required)
RSVP: Due to space constraints, no more than 40 local participants may attend the in-person event: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1F5VQ2lUdWsibOz0nSSdzM0ko38gDvSTWDbW-nhvRiIs/viewform?edit_requested=true

Additional Information:
This event will be open to the public and recorded. The final attendee list, agenda, meeting recording, and high-level notes of the discussion will all be posted to the U.S. Open Government Secretariat Public Engagement website.

Please feel free to share this invitation with other interested organizations.

Agenda:

5:00 p.m. Welcome, Kirsten Mitchell, President of the DC Open Government Coalition
5:05 p.m. Overview of international/national open government efforts and how they relate to local communities such as DC, Daniel York, Director, U.S. Open Government Secretariat, U.S. General Services Administration
5:15 p.m. Keynote Speaker, Kathleen Patterson, D.C. Auditor
5:30 p.m. Panel on Establishing a Transparency Reform Commission in DC
Speakers:
• Niquelle Allen, Esq, Director of the DC Office of Open Government (confirmed)
• Ginger McCall, former Public Records Advocate, state of Oregon (confirmed)
• Robert Becker, Coalition board member who has drafted legislation to create a transparency reform commission in DC (confirmed)
Moderator: Tom Susman, Founder, DC Open Government Coalition, and five-term member of the federal FOIA Advisory Committee
6:10 p.m. Q & A/Feedback
6:25 p.m. Closing remarks

“Global to Local: Lessons for Open Government & Civic Engagement for DC," a public meeting co-sponsored by the D.C. Open Government Coalition and the U.S. General Services Administration. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 15, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial L...

09/17/2024

The final plan for the Fallen Journalists Memorial was released today. Check it out.

The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation released the final design for the memorial to be built at Independence Avenue and 3rd Street,SW, in Washington, DC. Watch the video below to see...

08/30/2024

The Promise and Perils of AI in Election Coverage

Wednesday, Sept. 4. 5 p.m. ET
Sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Professional Standards and Ethics Committee
Generative artificial intelligence has the potential to be a powerful tool in the upcoming U.S. elections, both to inform and misinform voters. Two journalists with expertise in different areas of generative AI will examine the double-edged sword the technology presents in elections — to help journalists produce more nuanced reporting or to deceive the public with fake but hyper-realistic images, videos and audio.
Panelists:
· Zach Seward is the editorial director of AI initiatives at The New York Times.
· Loreben Tuquero is a staff writer for PolitiFact who conducts fact-checks and writes stories debunking misinformation on social media
· Moderated by SPJ Professional Standards and Ethics Committee and International Community member Eric Wishart. He is the standards and ethics editor and former editor-in-chief of Agence France-Presse.

Register here:

08/05/2024

Good news -- if the prosecutors go through with it.

Two special prosecutors say the reporter and editor who were targeted with the raid in the small town of Marion, Kansas, did not commit any crimes.

05/28/2024

The latest SPJ International Community newsletter.

Mexico election getting more attention

05/28/2024

Ever try to figure out crowd sizes. Here is a good guide. Great piece on how to visualize crowd size.

If you're going to talk in front of an audience it's fun to visualize how big that audience size looks. Like what does it actually look like when there are 150 people in a room? Here are some images of crowd sizes. 50 people 50 people will fill up a

05/04/2024

2023 Journalism Hall of Fame member Jonathan Salant talks about the dearth of DC-based journalists with . -

Fewer local reporters on Washington beat is bad news for democracy, analysts say

05/03/2024

Reporters Without Borders annual Index on Press Freedom is out. https://rsf.org/en/index The USA dropped 10 points. "[M]ajor structural barriers to press freedom persist in this country, once considered a model for freedom of expression." https://rsf.org/en/country/united-states We've got some work to do.

Reporters sans frontières assure la promotion et la défense de la liberté d'informer et d'être informé partout dans le monde. L'organisation, basée à Paris, compte des bureaux à l'international (Berlin, Bruxelles, Genève, Madrid, Stockholm, Tripoli, Tunis, Vienne et Washington DC) et plus d...

04/04/2024

It really is "Hug a Newsperson Day." https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/04/03/hug-a-newsperson-day-is-april-4-heres-why-were-celebrating-us/ #:~:text=Each%20year%20on%20April%204,of%20journalists%20and%20reporters%20worldwide.
So here is Morning Papers by Johann Strauss II. It was written for the Vienna Authors' and Journalists' Association and inspired by Offenbach's Evening Papers. (Wouldn't be nice if the SPJ could commission a piece?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGgbVuR9wh4

02/20/2024

ICFJ seeks a paid intern for our US-based Programs department. Estimated start date: As soon as possible.

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) seeks a paid intern for our programs department. The internship is a great opportunity to build foundational experience in how international programs are run by coordinating various selection processes, maintaining databases, conducting due diligence,....

01/23/2024

TONIGHT, Jan. 23 at 6pm ET.
Putting a Local Tinge to Global Stories: How One Small Paper Makes It Work

The Alexandria Times describes itself as a "hyper-local" newspaper. And yet Denise Dunbar, executive editor and publisher of the paper has been able to find ways to bring global events to the doorsteps of the papers' readers.

Join the International Community and the Washington DC Pro chapter in a discussion with Dunbar and learn how and why local news organizations can make the connection between local and global events.

Register here:

The Alexandria Times describes itself as a "hyper-local" newspaper. And yet Denise Dunbar, executive editor and publisher of the paper has been able to find ways to bring global events to the doorsteps of the papers' readers. Join the International Community and the Washington DC Pro chapter in a di...

01/22/2024

As noted in article, the SPJ has long been arguing this issue. And our own Kathryn Foxhall has been in the forefront of the battle. (You can keep up with the battle here - https://spjdc.org/pio-project/)

https://freedom.press/news/government-gag-rules-muzzle-journalists-sources/

Policies prohibiting government employees from speaking to the press violate the First Amendment

12/15/2023

Dec. 15 - Bill of Rights ratified! Yep, Dec. 15 232 years of constitutional protection of press freedom.

Following ratification by the state of Virginia, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, become the law of the land. In September 1789, the first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the sta...

11/24/2023

SPJ DC Hall of Fame member Charles Peters dies at 96.

His political journal challenged liberal and conservative orthodoxies for decades.