Good morning and welcome to the National Press club, the place where news happens. I am the president of the National Press club and the managing editor. This morning, we have a special headline event featuring diane foley, the minor a mother of journalist james foley was murdered by isis and 2013. We will have a panel of experts discussing how to address important issues. As we all know, unfortunately, this is in dire need now as journalists remain in harms way around the world. The National Press club is actively working with the wall street journal release the reporter who is being unjustly detained in a russian prison. They continue to advocate for the release of the captive there for more than 11 years. We have a usually active press team here works tirelessly to promote the freedom of the press here and abroad. Today, we are also aware that over 11 journalists and counting have already been killed or lost as casualties and the israelhamas war over the past nine days. We are mourning the loss of each of these brave journalists. The James W FoleyFoundation Works in helping journalists stay safe as they do their important work. The organization was founded by diane foley in september, 2014 a month after jims public execution. I graduated before jim at Marquette University but did not meet him in person but i had heard of them throughout market networks. Marquette networks. The fact that he returned to the region so he could continue reporting on the story of the news to be told despite knowing directly the grave risks involved to me is the embodiment of moral courage which this foundation represents. We are committed to ensuring the freedom of americans taken hostage overseas and with their safety and return a priority for america. As part of that mission, the Foley Foundation works with the National Press club to secure the release of our two american journalists held abroad. Diane foley is currently serving as the president of the foundation. Civilians are being used as pawns by hamas. We are strongly concerned about the more than 150 hostages taken. Senator Chris Van Hollen on the Foreign Relations committee issued a statement yesterday saluting the foundations work. He says today we remember not only james foley but also reporters reporting from dangerous places to shine light on the truth. The james Foley Foundation is a true leader supporting the vital work and its in that spirit i nominate i salute diane foley and salute all you in that mission. We are honored that diane foley is here today and she will give her remarks in a minute. This will be followed by a Panel Moderated by ellen sheear from the school of journalism. She is also the chairperson of the Foley Foundation. We are honored to have panel is here from the new york times, the voice of america and the Marquette University center for peacekeeping. Want to thank mike smith a fellow board member for arranging the speakers today. I wish to thank the cochairs of our headliners team. Special thanks to the membership coordinator at the club. And now, warm welcome to diane foley. [applause] thank you, eileen. And thanks to the National Press club and all of you for taking time to be here. And for at for covering our news today. The Foley Foundation is deeply committed to journalist safety. We want to ensure that both aspiring journalists and freelance journalists have access to the latest in Safety Education to enable them to bear witness to Current Events as safely as possible. Our Signature Initiative had been the development of undergraduate and graduate School Safety curricula to embed a safety curricula in all the schools of journalism thats also accessible to freelance journalists. We currently have 20 journalism and Communications Schools were used our curriculum thanks to our education director. We also have 11 schools in lebanon thanks to our partnership with the foundation who general just generously translated our curriculum. We partnered with headset, company that provides Virtual RealitySafety Training for freelancers and journalists. We even had a session here at the National Press club recent. Dangers to journalists seem to be increasing domestically and internationally. Many journalists have already been targeted in the israelihamas conflict. We are delighted to welcome these generous experts who are willing to be part of a test force to help ensure that our curriculum is as timely, practical and uptodate as it can. I would like to introduce them. First of all, those who cannot be with us, we have professor mcelroy who is the chair of journalism for the rooney college of communication, university of texas in austin. Nathanpuffer, Senior Vice President of risk and resilience at dow jones and was a veteran of the u. S. Military is now a fellow at the center for strategic and international studies, and hannah storm, founder and director of Headlines Network who promoted a conversation about Mental Health and moral injury for journalists. We are particularly delighted for those who can join us in person. We have eric phillips, Program Manager of the office of language programs for the voice of america. He is responsible for journalists safety and is a primary liaison with the United States agency for global media. And all matters related to safety and security, welcome. We also are delighted to welcome jason right who came down from the new york times. He is the Vice President of corporate security. Its been a lot of years as their Global Security director and as a founding board member from the culture of Safety Alliance for freelancers throughout the world. Tomgherkin is our education director from Marquette University and talon shearer our board chair who is jims professor years ago and continues his legacy today we are so grateful for all of these experts and their willingness to send generously share so that our curriculum can be useful, uptodate and timely. Yesterday, we have the privilege of hosting the james foley freedom run at Anacostia Park here in d. C. It was one of several runs that occurred to allow the country and we had one in paris this year. Its to raise awareness about journalists like evan and austin who still remain hostages and just to raise awareness of the risk journalists take every day. As eileen said, senator van hollen left remarks for us. He said he was inspired by our advocacy for press freedom. He is right about the journalistsrisks they take to bring us the news. So that we might know whats happening. Across the world. We hope that todays discussion will illuminate those risks and that we can help journalists state stay safe. Thank you so much. Let me add my thanks to the National Press club for hosting this event today. Its so important to highlight the issue and need for journalist Safety Education. Thank you all for joining us and thank you to the National Press corrupt press club. We will hear from our Task Force Members and tom about the changing landscape of risks to journalists. Let me briefly set the stage for the discussion. Journalists but themselves in harms way to do the important job of getting the news to all of us. We are seeing this right now in israelhamas conflict. The committee to protect journalists says that as of the first nine days of the fighting, almost a dozen journalists were killed, two were missing and eight injured. In the shelling last week in southern lebanon killed a reuters videographer and injured six of the journalists. Thats 13 journalists killed in those two regions in a week or so. Before last week, 16 journalists had been killed so far this year. Meanwhile, there is a difference, an increasing threat that foreign correspondence face with wrongful intentions by hostile governments, notably russia, china, iran and venezuela according to the Foley Foundation research. But as we all know, its not just conflict journalism. Foreign correspondence or risk these days or a tv reporter in florida was shot to death while covering a homicide and is videographer was injured. Last year, the Las Vegas Review journal reporter was stabbed multiple times and killed outside his home. Clark county public administrator was arrested. He had been being investigated. During the black lives matter protest, journalists were often injured but generally not by the protesters. In addition, many journalists were around the country are charred are targeted by online harassers and the list goes on. The good news is that more and more news organizations like those on our task force, are stepping up to the challenges posed by these risks. Nonprofits like cp j the International Room mood media are providing resources for journalists to be prepared to assess risk, medicaid them with Safety Strategy or determine when its too dangerous. With that background, lets get started. Why dont you start by going into more detail about what the Foley Foundation curriculum aims to do . Thank you for the question and thank to the press club for having us area within months of jims murder in 2014, ellen created a graduate level seminar designed for conflict journalists, particular for freelancers. Obviously, thats important and we know the conflict journalists will come up against risks. One thing we noticed that a snatches conflict journalists and we have to start with journalists and their young and Start Building safety habits to make sure journalists i think about my sister katie was a paramedic in chicago. Her job is to save lives but she needs to know how to do it safely. Journalists are not that different than first responders. They run toward scenes and violence and places where other people are leaving and they are armed with a pen or camera. I think we have a responsibility to make sure journalists are learning how to face and build habits. We took what ellen had created and started focusing on undergraduate programs. The challenge was teaching a class, a firstyear class or seniors or embed safety into the curriculum . Our thinking was that if we could gather materials and work with experts and see what students need to know and we work with tools to start at the youngest level, how do our you save and how you do a Risk Assessment, how do you interview a Hostile Force . These things are coming up throughout their worse is. The habits are developing. In that way, safety is not victim some addon. Its not something extra you do. You need to be safe to be an effective journalist. Safety is not just a physical safety we are looking at. We are looking at physical, mental, digital safety. While it seems like a lot to cover, if its offered, we have a better chance investigated journalists will means to protect themselves. I believe that the best way to do that is the curriculum where students are learning this. Its not like you need to be safe when you do this. You need to always be safe. Doing Risk Assessment and thinking about your safety and what i can be prepared for, its a habit. I know people on this stage agree with that and have either experienced or seen other journalists that need these tools to confront these challenges. Thank you for all the work youve done enhancing the curriculum. Eric maybe you can talk about what keeps you up at night . What are the challenges echo you have a network around the world and in the United States and journalists, freelancers and staff, that you have two try to protect. How do you work with them to create a culture of safety . In addition to myself, i want to call attention to the fact that clara domingues is also here with me today. On behalf of all of my colleagues at voa, we want to extend our thanks to diane and you for asking us to be part of this task force. We regard this opportunity highly and its our hope that anything we can contribute will be of use to the foundation. Weve been asked to talk about some of the challenges and we will do that. Before we get to that, we want to is not all bad news. There are spots of good news and i wanted to share a couple with today. Foley foundation in their curriculum is the lead, goes without saying, but there is more good news. The ceo of usa gm has stated from the start of her administration that journalists safety is a priority for an old hand at operating. Thats a big deal. Words are wonderful but actions are that are and amanda has created the first ever safety position. Were interviewing candidates now. Cap [inaudible] tell more about that. The challenges are plenty. They are growing in the nature of the challenges, growing in frequency. And voice of america, we have plenty of them. The key is getting this conversation to be less of an extra box you have to check and more getting it to be habit. This is a thing you have to be cautious of and be working on all the time as a journalist. Talking about Risk Assessment, it, just be a box you check in the office before you go off to the location for your assignment. Its something you been working on a lot in the way and. The Foley Foundation curriculum touches on this. Its pretty impressive. Risk assessment continues once you get to the location of your assignment. Weve got people in israel now and weve had to continually check in with our people to remind them to do the assessment. It is required by law that have a bomb shelter know where it is at all times and check all the boxes. Its an ongoing process. The smallest detail make a difference. The best example i can give up that is about a year and a half ago, our correspondent south sudan was called in washington to cover antigovernment protest. She was in such a hurry and had her gear and forgot her voa press id officials rounded up all the journalists as they do begin to require proof of their affiliation she couldnt provide it. She was placed in prison for 10 days. 10 days imprisonment south sudan, not a good time. Getting journalist to accept personal oneonone security people with them. Journalist dont like to be encumbered by a plus one when they do their work. I get up at there are some circumstances where you have to have that person with you 24 7 in making those choices how important the management decision are, not to say no but understand the work the journalists do its about having a conversation with that person. Its about having a security rep that says the reporting youre suggesting is dicey so lets have a conversation the best way to attack this area those people are hardtofind but we have to find them. This is a new issue conversation at voa and we are careful and engage with hannah storm on that in the dark center. Its an ongoing conversation at voa. One of the greatest areas of challengs is ethose are differe. A stringers personal message direct contact with us. When the person gets into trouble, its an expectation we will step up to help. Increasingly, we are using freelancers from pratt platforms like pay desk. There is no direct affiliation between voa and the individual. The connections with the company. Great discussion on policy versus principal. Policy says you are not responsible for that person. Principal says this person is working in a hostile environment completing assignments for me, how may not responsible for that person . Thats a tricky conversation. Working on it we know we have to do better. I could go on. There are plenty of challenges to talk about but i will close by repeating my thanks to the Foley Foundation on behalf of voa to be a part of this and we hope whatever we can contribute can be useful, thank you. We really appreciate your help. Jason, i will ask you a variation of the same question. What keeps you up at night . And how has that changed over time . To erics point, you cannot static in your approach. Maybe talk about how it has evolved and what you are worried about today. If youre going to get a couple of security people here, there is an expectation there would be doom and gloom but i will be a little optimistic. I actually feel similar to what you mentioned. There has been a pretty substantial shift in the past 10 years in relationship to risk between editors and reporters. I think the changes for the better. I would be curious to hear what your point of view is. Ive seen that the stereotype or the cliche of this grizzled, angry editor telling you to get out there and get the story and dont bother me and dont ask questions, i think thats gone by the wayside and thats a great thing. Nowadays, we see we have young reporters were concerned about security and they raise the issue. What weve been trying to do is make sure these young reporters freelancers come recognized in the modern. Reporters asking difficult questions and saying im going to go to south sudan and get this tough story, what will you do . Whats the plan if i get in trouble . Whats the Communications Plan and how are we checking in . At the new york times, if you