Lyra had worked at the Belfast Telegraph, was a member of the National Union of Journalists UK and Ireland and was a freelancer and novelist. She was killed after a gunman, apparently with the New IRA, fired shots towards the police. She was standing nearby, reporting live from the scene.
The Coolest Person at the Writers Conference
At the Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Portland, OR, the final week of March, I did the usual: attend workshops and hit the parties. But it was the unusual that resonated: A chat with writer Jennifer F. Steil at the Authors Guild gathering. She told me about serving as a newspaper editor in […]
Yusef Salaam on Writing While Black
In commemoration of African American History Month, NWU’s New York chapter presented “Writing While Black” on February 13th at NWU headquarters in midtown Manhattan. Veteran journalist Herb Boyd, who is also an Amsterdam News columnist, led journalists Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Yusef Salaam, along with poets Eartha Watts-Hicks, JP Howard, and Raymond Nat Turner (co-chair of NWU’s […]
Follow Ongoing Events at the UN Commission on the Status of Women
Journalists face daily threats of being attacked, imprisoned, threatened and harassed for doing their job. A survey of over 400 women journalists in 50 countries by the International Federation of Journalists showed that “almost one in two women journalists have suffered sexual harassment, psychological abuse, online trolling and others forms of gender-based violence while working.” […]
A SEAT AT THE JOURNAL-ISMS TABLE
On Saturday, December 1, NWU President Larry Goldbetter and executive committee member A.J. Springer were recognized for their work in getting Ebony freelancers paid at Richard Prince’s 9th Annual Journal-isms Roundtable Holiday Party at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Journal-isms covers all aspects of Black media and is a leading voice for diversity in publishing. Prince was […]
Manuel Duran Wins Temporary Stay of Deportation
Last August, the NWU Delegate Assembly passed a resolution in support of journalist Manuel Duran Ortega, a Salvadoran immigrant seeking asylum in the US. Duran Ortega was a TV reporter in El Salvador who became a respected journalist in Memphis, TN, writing for the Spanish-language publication Memphis Noticias. While wearing a press badge and reporting at […]
Film Chronicles Uncomfortable Labor History
In 1993, the movie Tombstone played theaters with the tagline, “Every town has a story, Tombstone has a legend.” Only a half hour drive from Tombstone, Ariz., is Bisbee, a town whose story also needed to be told. In fact, the tale had been suppressed for decades. Now, Bisbee ’17 will go a long way to address that. Directed […]
16 Days Against Gender-Based Violence
Almost two-thirds of women journalists have been subjected to online abuse, according to a new IFJ survey. Respondents reported various forms of harassment, including death or rape threats, insults, the devaluation of their work, sexist comments, being the recipient of obscene images, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and account impersonation. Among those who suffered online harassment, the survey suggests, […]
NWU Joins Coalition Demanding a Full Investigation into Fate of Jamal Khashoggi
Oct. 11, 2018 The Embassy of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 601 New Hampshire Ave., NW Washington, DC 20037 Dear Ambassador Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, We, the 30 undersigned journalism and free press organizations, representing thousands of journalists and their supporters, join the United States government and others in urging a full investigation […]
A Spear in Our Side: When Police Charge Victims
After DeAndre Harris was brutally beaten by white nationalists in Charlottesville, VA, last summer, police charged the 20-year-old black man with assaulting the nationalists. Eventually he was acquitted, but this has become a pattern: Law enforcement underreporting hate crimes in America, while tacitly colluding with perpetuators by charging the victims. The impact is that those who would […]