Long Island University Presents Annual George Polk Seminar on Wednesday, April 16

- Award-winning news blogger, foreign correspondents for newspapers and network television
debate new strategies in journalism at Kumble Theater on the Brooklyn Campus -

Lila Fadel, Baghdad bureau chief for the McClatchy Company and winner of the George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting, will address the George Polk Seminar on April 16.

Brooklyn, N.Y. – On Wednesday, April 16, the annual George Polk Seminar will explore the topic, “Strategies – Old and New – for Groundbreaking Journalism,” with a panel of intrepid journalists who are among the latest winners of the George Polk Awards. Presented by Long Island University, the Seminar will be held in the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts on the Brooklyn Campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Panelist include Joshua M. Marshall, editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, the widely read news blog that led news reports of the politically motivated dismissals of United States attorneys across the country. Marshall's tenacious coverage sparked large-scale media interest, ultimately resulting in the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Marshall is the first blogger to earn a George Polk Award, winning the honor for Legal Reporting.

Other panelists will be Jim Sciutto, senior foreign correspondent for ABC News and winner of the George Polk Award for Television Reporting, which he shares with producer Angus Hines and cameraman/producer Tom Murphy. The team penetrated Myanmar's news blackout during the government's crackdown on peaceful demonstrations, evading security officials to transmit interviews of monks and other dissidents that exposed covert arrests, forced labor and murder.

The Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers, Leila Fadel, also will join the panel. She won the George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting for comprehensive and vivid accounts, gathered with first-hand reporting, that revealed trauma for individual lives as well as complexities in Iraq's ever-changing military and political struggle.

The George Polk Awards are named for the CBS correspondent murdered while covering the Greek civil war in 1948. They are administered by Long Island University and are based on recommendations of a national committee of news executives, editors, reporters and journalism teachers.

The George Polk Seminar will take place on Wednesday April 16, at the Kumble Theater on the University's Brooklyn Campus, located near the intersection of DeKalb Avenue and Flatbush Avenue Extension in downtown Brooklyn. A 5:30 p.m. reception will precede the panel discussion that begins at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required and can be made by calling (516) 299-3298 or e-mailing jeanette.morales@liu.edu. It is sponsored by the Brooklyn Campus journalism department and Society of Professional Journalists and will be moderated by journalism Professor Ralph Engelman.

On Thursday, April 17, Long Island University will host the George Polk Awards Luncheon at The Roosevelt Hotel, located in Manhattan at 45 East 45th Street (at the corner of Madison Avenue). A poster exhibit displaying work by the Award winners will begin at 11 a.m., and the Luncheon and Awards presentations will begin at noon. A limited number of tickets are available; please call (516) 299-3298 or e-mail jeanette.morales@liu.edu.

The Long Island University Public Radio Network will broadcast the George Polk Awards Seminar and the Awards Luncheon on 88.3 WLIU FM and 88.1 WCWP FM and on the Internet at www.wliu.org.

Posted: March 27, 2008

Media contact: (718) 488-1015