Featured Event
$ Dec. 4 at 8 a.m.- 6 p.m.
2009 Turning a New Leaf Conference
The Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council
Various campus locations
This conference is for professionals in the landscaping industry, government and education and focuses on sustainable landscaping techniques and business practices. Director of GW's Office of Sustainability Meghan Chapple-Brown will introduce the keynote speaker, former D.C mayor Anthony Williams. The conference is co-sponsored by GW's Landscape Design Program. For more information, please click here.
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From Guts to Glory
GW’s Global Media Institute honors 2009 Courage in Journalism Award winners at the National Press Club.
By Meaghan Calnan
Agnes Taile spoke for her fellow Courage in Journalism Award winners on Oct. 26 when she said treating reporting like it is a safe desk job is “pretty pointless.” Ms. Taile was one of four women recognized at the “Evening Honoring Courage in Journalism” hosted and moderated by Marvin Kalb, renowned journalist and GW James Clark Welling Presidential Fellow.
The four women honored – Jila Baniyaghood, Amira Hass, Iryna Khalip and Ms. Taile – have been imprisoned, abused and received death threats for their decision to trade their desks for field work. Ms. Baniyaghood, an Iranian who was imprisoned in the aftermath of that nation's presidential election, could not attend the event at the National Press Club. Though she has been released from jail, her husband, a fellow journalist, remains behind bars.
Ms. Taile, who is from Cameroon, was joined on stage by Ms. Khalip of Belarus and Ms. Hass of Israel. Donna Leinwand, president of the National Press Club and a reporter for USA Today, introduced the panel and expressed her appreciation for the freedom she enjoys. “I will return to my office tomorrow to live and report another day,” she said.
Ms. Khalip does not count on that same security. “I’ve been beaten with a club so much I probably don’t have any brains left – just guts and courage,” she said in response to Mr. Kalb’s question why reporters sacrifice so much for their stories. Ms. Taile attributed her own persistence to her sense of obligation. “You cannot cross your arms and wait for things to get better,” she said.
The Courage in Journalism Awards honor women journalists who do that very thing – refuse to cross their arms and remain passive. Since the awards were inaugurated in 1990, 66 journalists have been recognized for their “extraordinary strength of character and integrity while reporting the news under dangerous or difficult circumstances.”
Despite their difficult circumstances, the panelists kept their sense of humor. “It’s always fun to annoy the authorities,” said Ms. Hass, a reporter and columnist for the Israeli daily Ha’aretz and the only Israeli Jew known to live under Palestinian rule. “It spices up life.” When she returns to Belarus, Ms. Khalip said she expects “a red carpet or handcuffs.”
Ms. Khalip also fears most Americans do not get enough information about what is going on in her country, and probably cannot even locate it on a map. The other panelists agreed that the U.S. media should provide more in-depth coverage of global news.
At the event, which was cosponsored by the GW Global Media Institute and the International Women’s Media Foundation, video footage telling the four award winners’ stories were shown. The short films were narrated by Ann Curry of NBC News.
“The event was a stunning affirmation of the relationship between a free press and a free society,” says Michael Freedman, executive director of the Global Media Institute. “It demonstrates why it is important for people to understand the role the press plays in our democracy.”
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